It’s almost unfair to measure any other crime drama against the lofty benchmark set by HBO‘s True Detective season 1. But every now and again, something like the forthcoming Netflix thriller Reptile comes along, and while we’re not exactly claiming the two are on equal terms just yet…the latter’s first trailer certainly has our attention. Brooding protagonist, muted colour palettes, chilling whodunnit, and all.
The forthcoming film follows Detective Tom Nichols (del Toro) — your classic hardened investigator who can’t seem to get his personal shit together. Nichols finds himself at the centre of a sinister conspiracy that rocks a small town to its very core; while investigating the murder of a young real estate agent.
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The key suspects range from the victim’s boyfriend Will Grady (Justin Timberlake), who finds himself in something of a Ben Affleck-Gone Girl situation, and the ever-creepy Eli Phillips (Michael Pitt) to the victim’s ex-husband Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman).
“The collaboration was a lot of fun,” said Benicio del Toro, who had a hand in penning the screenplay.
“Once we knew where we needed the story to land, then the question becomes, ‘How do we get there? How do we make it interesting?’”
“We did research and tried to make it as real as possible. We talked about movies and storytelling with certain films as references. One that comes to mind is In Cold Blood.”
Justin Timberlake added: “I wanted to get to the end as quickly as possible — just like a good book or suspenseful novel.”
“I liked the idea of playing a character that has to constantly react to the unpredictability of what’s thrown in his direction.”
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Del Toro, Timberlake, and Silverstone are joined by Michael Pitt, Ato Essandoh, Karl Glusman, Sky Ferreira, Eric Bogosian, Domenick Lombardozzi, Frances Fisher, and more.
The film has been directed by music video veteran Grant Singer — hence JT and Sky Ferreira — who also penned the screenplay alongside Benjamin Brewer, and as previously mentioned, Benicio del Toro himself. The cinematography, on the other hand, has been accomplished by Mike Gioulakis (Split, Glass, Us).
Reptiles starring Benicio del Toro and Justin Timberlake is scheduled to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this September before streaming on Netflix from October 6th, 2023 — check out the trailer above.
