Sometimes a high-concept premise comes along that’s so hooky, it’s a wonder nobody has done it before. That’s absolutely the case with Dust Bunny, and yet with its genre-mashing concept, it’s also a feat of pure creativity. Hitman-and-kid movies aren’t exactly new (hello, Leon), but in Bryan Fuller’s upcoming film, 10-year-old Aurora taps Mads Mikkelsen’s hired gun for a very particular job: killing the monster under her bed. Just, how real is that monster? Check out the trailer:
Fuller has long been a major voice on the small screen, as the showrunner behind Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, and the early days of Star Trek: Discovery. But Dust Bunny marks his feature directorial debut, from a script he also wrote, and he’s pulled together a stellar cast to mark the occasion – alongside Mikkelsen, he has Sigourney Weaver, David Dastmalchian, Rebecca Henderson and Sheila Atim. In the role of young Aurora is Sophie Sloan. Already, it looks like there are layers to the film: does the kid literally have a monster under her bed? Or has her kid-logic twisted some darker reality into a fantastical tale? The most important question, though, is where Weaver got those high-heel-pistols from.
Here’s the official synopsis: “Ten-year-old Aurora has a mysterious neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen) who kills real-life monsters. He’s a hit man for hire. So, when Aurora needs help killing the monster she believes ate her entire family, she procures his services. Suspecting that her parents may have fallen victim to assassins gunning for him, Aurora’s neighbor guiltily takes the job. Now, to protect her, he’ll need to battle an onslaught of assassins ― and accept that some monsters are real.”
Dust Bunny is coming to US cinemas on 5 December – stay tuned for more info on a UK release.
