The tone isn’t quite as jaunty, but there’s an unmistakable North by Northwest vibe being given off by the just-debuted Eagle Eye teaser. Innocent man attempts to withdraw $100 from an ATM, discovers his account has inflated to $751,000, goes home to find firearms and sacks of ammonium nitrate strewn about his living room, and then he gets a phone call warning him the FBI is on the way.
Shia LaBeouf’s day doesn’t get any better from there, and it’s to DreamWorks’ credit that they don’t show anything outside of the film’s first act. From what I understand (and from what little I’ve seen, which includes an embargoed January set visit to a DHL facility in Riverside, CA), the complications start piling up very quickly. And while I don’t think we’ll see Shia getting chased around by a crop duster, I imagine that DJ Caruso will find a multitude of ways to pay homage to Hitchcock (as he did in last year’s above-average Disturbia). In terms of scale, this is a surprisingly big movie.
Eagle Eye was originally slated to hit theaters in August, but DreamWorks decided they’d rather try their luck against Blindness and Beverly Hills Chihuahua on September 26th. Though I liked the idea of opening this film in The Fugitive‘s slot, there’s no reason it can’t catch on in the fall.