To be honest, word on cold war sub thriller Phantom has been running silent more than it has been running deep of late. We learned back in September 2011 that David Duchovny, Ed Harris and William Fichtner were on for Lonely Hearts director Todd Robinson’s new film, but nothing has struck the news sonar since then. It’s a hearty ping, then, for the trailer, which has surfaced at Apple and can be viewed above.
Phantom finds Harris as the captain of a Soviet nuclear submarine who has been suffering weird seizures that shift his perception of reality. Naturally, he’s been keeping that from his superiors in the navy, and definitely when he’s ordered to set sail on a classified mission.
Along for the ride is a group of technicians testing a secret new device, who turn out to be working for the KGB and under the command of their chief (Duchovny). Tensions run high between the crew and the new arrivals, and there’s a lot more to the mission than the captain has been told.
As we seemingly predicted when we reported on Duchovny’s casting, Robinson has opted for the Connery Method with the Russian sub crew, letting the mostly American cast stick with their native accents instead of forcing them to try to go for the full Ruskie. And from the looks of the trailer (which edges into spoiler territory more than once), the end result is a blend of The Hunt For **Red October **and Crimson Tide.
There’s no word on when we’ll see the film, but it’ll dock in American cinemas on March 1.