While most consider the style of storytelling dead, noir is still one of the most elegant and entertaining forms of film narrative to date. The entire culture of Hollywood was built on films like Sunset Blvd. which is easily one of the grandfathers of the genre, and it’s always nice to see modern filmmakers take a stab at recreating that feel in a current film.
That’s exactly what director Tony Krantz and writer Erik Jendresen have done with their upcoming “neo-noir” The Big Bang. The film stars just about everyone moviegoers have come to love, in a pretty intense and ridiculous (in a good way) plot. Here’s the synopsis.
Late one night, Los Angeles private investigator, Ned Cruz (Antonio Banderas) gets a visit from a recently paroled Russian boxer with an intriguing job offer: find Lexie, his missing girlfriend—and the 30-million dollar stash of diamonds she’s hiding. As Detective Cruz sets out to find her, the clues send him into the city’s seediest corners, from a Hollywood action star with a dirty little secret (James Van Der Beek), to an enterprising porn producer who takes a personal interest in his own work (Snoop Dogg), and a kinky waitress with an unusual fetish for particle physics (Autumn Reeser). Lexie proves to be as elusive as she is beautiful and Cruz becomes obsessed with finding her.
With time running out, Cruz discovers the trail leads to reclusive billionaire (Sam Elliott), and his physicist (Jimmi Simpson), intent on recreating The Big Bang underneath the New Mexico desert. Tailed by a trio of cops also looking to find the missing diamonds, and with the body count piling up, Cruz soon realizes that what appeared to be a standard missing person’s case is anything but, and could quite possibly bring about the end of the world as we know it.
The film is set to hit theaters later this year, but you can check out the trailer in the meantime after the jump.