As proven in David Fincher’s 2023 Netflix thriller The Killer, few have a cooler “I shall hunt you down and kill you” look than Michael Fassbender. Though perhaps he’s been matched by Cate Blanchett, his co-star in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming thriller Black Bag.
The trailer, which just debuted on Tuesday morning, shows the two as elite London-based intelligence operatives (or something) and also a married couple. Security footage reveals that Blanchett’s character is in cahoots with some potential baddies, so Fassbender is tasked with taking her down. The film looks like a more serious spin on the Doug Liman action-comedy Mr. and Mrs. Smith starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, recently relaunched as an Amazon Prime Video series with Donald Glover and Maya Erskine. A couple in love assigned to take the other out was also the premise of John Huston’s late career winner Prizzi’s Honor with Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner.
This is two-time Oscar-winner Blanchett’s first time working with the Oscar-winning Soderbergh since The Good German in 2006 (a gorgeous-looking movie that kinda slumped through an unexciting screenplay). Fassbender co-starred in Soderbergh’s action-heavy Haywire in 2011 opposite Gina Carano and Ewan McGregor. Black Bag co-stars Regé-Jean Page, Marisa Abela, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke, and, most excitingly, former 007 Pierce Brosnan.
The film will be out in theaters with Focus Features on March 14, which is fun because Soderbergh’s nimble Lucy Liu-led haunted house picture Presence will be in theaters via NEON at the tail end of January. Both movies were written by David Koepp, who collaborated with Soderbergh on the recent thriller Kimi. Koepp, a veteran of the Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as the scribe behind Carlito’s Way, The Paper, and Premium Rush, has Jurassic World Rebirth on the horizon as well.
