PREVIEW


While Watchmen has been grabbing all the limelight of late in the lead-up to its release in a couple of months - and rightly so - another quality-looking vigilante flick is flying under the radar.

Franklyn is said to be set in a dark futuristic England where religious fanaticism has taken over ... Well, some of the movie anyway.

The intriguing story I'm am yet to completely get my head around, centres around four main characters, described as "lost souls, divided by two parallel worlds, on course for an explosive collision when a single bullet will decide all their fates".



Among them is Ryan Phillipe's masked vigilante, Preest, who brings thoughts of Watchmen's own Rorschach or even Christian Bale's Batman. Just listen to the way he talks.

Also starring is Bernard Hill as Esser, a broken man, searching for his wayward son amongst the rough streets of London's homeless, Sam Riley as Milo is a heartbroken thirty-something desperately trying to find a way back to the purity of first love, and Eva Green as Emilia, a beautiful art student; her suicidal art projects are becoming increasingly more complex and deadly.

The movie is to hit cinemas in the UK on February 20, but as far as the rest of the world goes, there has been no official release dates as yet.



Going by the trailer for the film, which was released last week, it looks an at times visually stunning piece - at the very least - from writer-director Gerald McMarrow, whose only other credit is Thespian X (2002).

There is certainly shades of Dark City (2008) and V for Vendetta (2005) in Franklyn, and I'm just hoping its more the former than the latter in delivery.