‘Seeking a Friend for the End of the World’ Poster & Trailer

Focus Features has just released the trailer for their apocalyptic romantic comedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.  It will mark the directorial debut of screenwriter Lorena Scafaria (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) and the studio showed their support by giving her a talented cast that includes Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Connie Britton, Rob Corddry, William Petersen, and Patton Oswalt.  It is set to hit theaters on June 22^nd.

Summer movies tend to fall into two categories, they are either blockbusters or they are other.   

The film takes place in the too-near future when the world learns that “Matilda” a life-ending asteroid will have a direct hit on Earth in two weeks.  As the trailer shows, this will lead to some very bizarre and funny reactions. 

 

The film centers on Dodge (Carell), a man who finds himself very alone after his wife leaves in the obligatory end-of-the-world-panic.  When his high school sweetheart writes him saying she wants to be with him when the world ends, he asks his neighbor Penny (Knightley), to accompany him on the trip to find her.   Along the way love (surprise, surprise) begins to blossom.

Being “other” isn’t necessarily a bad thing because these films sometimes jump out and become bigger hits than the tentpole-mega-franchise-flicks that received much more fanfare.  The most recent proof of this was last summer when Bridesmaids took the Cineplexes by storm.  While it’s way too soon to declare Seeking a Friend for the End of the World as this year’s “non-franchise-soup-du-jour”, the trailer does make it look promising.  It should do well with that late June release date as it is only up against the absurd concept feature Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the animated flick Brave.