[Trailer removed at producer's request.]
It has been a strange and winding road for Jennifer Lynch of late. Likely forever destined to be known as 'David's daughter', Lynch first came to popular attention as the author of Twin Peaks spin off book Laura Palmer's Diary before enlisting daddy David to produce her directorial debut, Boxing Helena. Helena, of course, tanked so badly that Lynch dropped off the radar for several years, only really reappearing last year with Surveillance, which still proved very divisive but also much more successful than Helena. And now? Before Surveillance had hit screens it was announced that for her third feature Lynch was heading to India to shoot a Bollywood fantasy-horror titled Hisss, a film based on old legends about snake woman with Bollywood starlet Mallika Sherawat in the lead, snakey role.
We've been waiting for more ever since but have had to content ourselves with a few shots of Sherawat in the snake makeup designed by legendary effects man Robert Kurtzman along with reports from the recent Fango con in LA where Lynch, Sherawat and Kurtzman showed clips from the film to crowds. But no more! It's smaller than I'd like but the first trailer for the picture has just arrived and we've got it! It plays out entirely without dialogue but it does answer a few questions:
First, this looks to be - rather surprisingly - the most commercially minded film Lynch has made thus far. This could easily play to crowds. Big ones.
Second, while there looks to be a bit of a romantic element to it this is a creature film through and through. Big monster carnage? You bet.
Third, Kurtzman has done himself proud. The effects are excellent.
And fourth, Bollywood fans flocking to the theater to see Sherawat on screen are going to see rather a lot of her, if you catch my meaning. While the trailer stops short of actual nudity there is rather a lot more skin on display than is common in Bollywood films, where female stars are expected to walk a tightrope between being 'pretty' and being overtly sexual.
Hopefully we'll have a higher res version soon but in the mean time, check the first trailer for Hisss below the break!