First-look images show a glimpse of Metal Lords, the new movie written by Game of Thrones co-creator DB Weiss. Back in 2019, Weiss and David Benioff signed a reported $200 million deal with Netflix after the HBO fantasy series ended and the streaming giant became their new home for imaginative storytelling. The dynamic duo recently acted as executive producers on the highly-rated university dramedy The Chair, but they will return to the writers' room for the upcoming TV series The Three-Body Problem.
Netflix officially announced the music drama movie back in February 2021 along with its three main leads: Jaeden Martell, Isis Hainsworth, and Adrian Greensmith. Martell got his breakout role in the movie St. Vincent, and has since gone on to star in several popular films and TV series, such as It and Defending Jacob. Hainsworth has starred in the BBC/Netflix series Wanderlust and Autumn de Wilde's Emma. Greensmith is making his feature debut in the upcoming film and is set to graduate from the Royal Central School Of Speech And Drama this year.
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EW released an exclusive first look at Metal Lords today, as well as the inside scoop on Weiss' upcoming film. In the article, Weiss mentions the difficulties of creating universes based in real life as opposed to those in fantasy, having faced this challenge in the contemporary world of The Chair, and states that it's easier to get things wrong when dealing with reality. A similar challenge was posed in Metal Lords, which is set at a modern-day high school. Weiss credits the leads with impressively grounding the story in realism and allowing the characters' humanity to take center stage. The Game Of Thrones co-creator said, "They really held down that part of the movie in a way that was insanely impressive to me."
Metal Lords was intended to be made years earlier with producer Greg Shapiro (The Hurt Locker) but after Weiss was hired to write Game Of Thrones, the project was pushed to the side. Weiss was finally able to revisit the concept after signing the deal with Netflix in 2019 and stated that the ideas behind the film only became more meaningful with age. Originally, the kids who are so heavily influenced by rock music were not intended to be such extreme outsiders as they are in the current movie. As time went by, Weiss said the music drifted further and further away from the mainstream which helped make more sense out of that integral part of the story. Weiss also praised Hainsworth for bringing a new element to Emily that had not been present on the written page and said that her naturally expressive quality changed his perception of the character.
With Peter Sollett (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) directing and Rage Against the Machine veteran Tom Morello acting as executive music producer, the film is sure to be an authentic spectacle. Metal has been a highly misunderstood genre of music for years, criticized often for its dark undertones and lack of "earworm" melodies. But the level of craftsmanship and complicated musical theory, not to mention the immense amount of sub-genres birthed over the years, has reached a broad and diverse group of listeners. The unapologetic passion that accompanies emotional lyrics is what makes this type of music so special and will no doubt serve as the perfect backdrop for the coming-of-age story that is Metal Lords.
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Source: EW
