David Ayer’s last movie, Suicide Squad, made $746 million at the box office, but his new one, Bright, is heading straight for Netflix. And he’s pretty damn happy about it. How do we know? Well, the first giveaway was him charging onto the stage at Comic-Con and shouting, "This is Netflix right now! We’re representing Netflix right now! What’s up with that?" Panel moderator Terry Crews chimed in with, "Netflix, bitches!" We’d say there’s a high likelihood of that becoming the streaming service’s new slogan before the end of the weekend.
For his gritty fairy tale, set in an LA where orcs live in ghettos while glamorous elves swan about the city’s more chichi areas, Ayer says he was given complete creative control by Netflix. "This isn’t like some bullshit PG-13, standard-issue studio story," he said. "You haven’t seen this before. This is a new kind of thing we’re doing." Perks included shooting in the real Los Angeles, occasionally in alleyways infested by genuine cockroaches and rats, and having the freedom to shoot R-rated, big-budget mayhem. To demonstrate this, Ayer unveiled a crunching action sequence set around a gas station, during which Noomi Rapace’s hard-as-nails, pointy-eared elf villain sprays automatic fire at Will Smith’s human hero Ward and his orc partner Jakoby, while they try to avoid both the bullets and a homicidal car. It climaxes, as every action sequence set around a gas station is obliged to do, with a gargantuan explosion, confirming that Bright will deliver major mayhem in spades.
“It’s Training Day smashed together with Lord Of The Rings,” summarised Will Smith, who went on to recall how his first viewing of Star Wars was better than his first time having sex, then dropped a weapons-grade innuendo about a magic wand. Just as the panel wrapped up, Smith spotted a note in front of him reminding panellists that there are children in the audience. "I’d like to apologise for the wand comment,” he said in a grave voice. “I’d like to apologise for talking about having sex as a teenager. I’m just seeing this now. I blame Comic-Con!"
You can see the new trailer below, and Bright hits Netflix on 22 December.