'Arrival' Photos: Your First Look At Denis Villeneuve's Alien Invasion Drama

Before he dives deep into Blade Runner 2, Denis Villeneuve is splashing around in the science fiction pool with the alien invasion drama Arrival. We still don’t know a ton about the picture, but we’ve got our first look at stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner thanks to two new photos.

USA Today revealed the images, and though they don’t show much, it’s enough to pique our interest. (And maybe Lois Lane and Hawkeye can bridge this divisive Marvel/DC gap.)

Adams looks grubby and disheveled, world-weary and beaten down, which seems like a reasonable response to an alien invasion. She’s got a lot on her mind. And that certainly is an ominous oblong object looming in the background, though Adams doesn’t appear terribly concerned, so perhaps this has become a common sight in these times.

Renner delivers the obligatory sci-fi concerned-star-staring-concernedly-at-something-concerning-in-the-distance look. My guess is that whatever he’s gawking at has something to do with aliens. A bold statement, I know.

Based on Ted Chiang’s novella The Story of Your Life, Arrival follows a linguist, Louise (Amy Adams), who, after aliens arrive, is tasked with deciphering their language, and her quest reshapes how she views our world. This is thoughtful, esoteric science fiction, and is certainly fertile thematic territory for Sicario director to root around in.

Talking about her character Amy Adams said:

She felt real, like somebody I would know and somebody I would like to have a conversation with. Emotionally, the journey she takes in this was devastating to me.

Any Denis Villeneuve movie is worth getting stoked about, the fact that it’s sci-fi—and that we’re in for a double helping of the genre with Blade Runner 2—only sweetens the deal.

Amy Adams praised Arrival’s unique special effects, while Jeremy Renner invoked the names Stanley Kubrick and StevenSpielberg while discussing the film. He also teased that this is not your typical alien invasion movie where outsiders arrive on the scene and wreck up the joint. All of this is quite promising indeed.

Arrival arrives on November 11, and you can bet I’m going to be all up in its business until then.