Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor face dino chaos in Oak Street preview
Warner Bros. showed 14 minutes of 4DX footage from The End of Oak Street, with David Robert Mitchell and J.J. Abrams touting family stakes.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor’s quiet suburb gets a dinosaur-sized problem in Warner Bros.’ coming sci-fi film The End of Oak Street, and a Los Angeles audience got an early jolt of it in 4DX on Saturday night, Variety reported.
The preview screened 14 minutes of footage for journalists and influencers, according to Variety. The film comes from It Follows director David Robert Mitchell, with J.J. Abrams producing through Bad Robot.
Hathaway plays Denise and McGregor plays Greg, a married couple whose home is torn out of its normal neighborhood after a cosmic event hits Oak Street. The crisis throws the family into a place filled with dinosaurs, according to the film details reported by Variety.
The footage follows Denise and Greg as they leave their children behind to search for their dog, Starbuck, a name Variety described as a nod to Battlestar Galactica. Their kids are played by My Old Ass actor Maisy Stella and Sweet Tooth star Christian Convery.
The parents head into the neighborhood with limited protection, including a baseball bat and a shotgun, Variety reported. The clip shows them splitting up, moving through the suburb, dodging a fast dinosaur seen in the film’s first trailer, and trying to flee in the family car.
The escape plan does not go smoothly. According to Variety, the footage reveals that Oak Street has not just moved, it has landed in a world packed with dinosaurs of different sizes and types.
The 4DX presentation turned the chase into a physical event. Variety reported that the seats moved during the driving sequence, while water sprayed from behind audience members’ seats during dinosaur attacks.
Mitchell entered the theater after the footage ended and reacted to the effects, according to Variety. “Especially seeing the seats shifting with the driving!” he said.
Mitchell told the audience he was drawn to the clash between everyday suburbia and prehistoric danger. “The idea of a normal neighborhood was something that is so fantastical,” he said, according to Variety. “I thought the merging of those two things would be interesting, grounding the spectacle.”
Variety reported that Mitchell was attending while on a break from work on They Follow, the anticipated follow-up to It Follows.
Abrams and Mitchell also stressed that the movie is built around the family, not just the creature set pieces. Abrams said each main character is hiding something or struggling with something, according to Variety, while adding that the family is meant to be easy for viewers to root for.
“It’s not a sadistic movie. It’s got a big heart at its core,” Abrams said, according to Variety.
Mitchell said he needed actors who could make the family feel natural and believable. He described Denise as a caring mother with ambitions of her own, and said the children also have personal conflicts that become sharper once the danger begins.
The director also discussed how the film shifts between Denise and Greg’s points of view as they discover what has happened around them. Variety reported that one moment in the footage shows an older neighbor dead on the floor near a trail of blood.
Michael Giacchino composed the score. Variety noted that Giacchino previously scored all three Jurassic World movies and The Lost World video game. Abrams praised the composer’s ability to find what he called “the heartbeat of the scene.”
Abrams compared The End of Oak Street to a strong episode of The Twilight Zone, telling Variety the story is specific to its characters and emotional, even as it works inside a genre frame.
The End of Oak Street is scheduled to open Aug. 14 from Warner Bros. Pictures. Variety reported that it will play in select 4DX theaters nationwide and in Imax.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.