Obsession sends people down strange paths. In the case of the onetime British colonel Percy Fawcett, it was eventually his undoing. Or at least, it presumably was. Fawcett, along with his son Jack, disappeared in 1925 while searching for a lost city known as Z in the Amazon. His story formed the basis of David Grann’s successful 2009 nonfiction book on Fawcett’s journey and disappearance, and now it’s being adapted to film.
Directed by James Gray, whose previous film The Immigrant is one of the great overlooked works of recent years, The Lost City of Z follows what’s known of Fawcett’s journey, as the explorer (Charlie Hunnam) and his son (Tom Holland), along with their cohort Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson), journey up the Amazon river in hopes of discovering what nobody else could. Needless to say, they find no shortage of obstacles, whether from native tribes or from the sort of danger that typically arises when explorers set out to find what isn’t meant to be found.
The film’s first teaser trailer has been released after its premiere at the 2016 New York Film Festival, and Gray’s latest recalls Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God in all of its lush photography, encroaching paranoia, and constant danger appearing from all sides. It’s an intriguing premise, buoyed by a capable cast and a filmmaker who’s still looking for the feature which will finally herald his considerable talents to a larger audience.
Amazon Studios will release The Lost City of Z in theaters on April 14th in New York and Los Angeles with a wider release set for April 21st. The film will eventually surface on the streaming platform later in 2017.
