Guillermo del Toro’s remake of the 1947 thriller Nightmare Alley is going full noir next month. Searchlight Pictures said Friday that a black-and-white version of the new pic starring Bradley Cooper will get a limited theatrical release in Los Angeles.
Titled Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness and Light, the b/w take hits screens on January 14, with four theaters eventually playing it for up to six days. See the listings below.
“Although we shot Nightmare Alley in color, we lit it as if it were black and white,” del Toro said. “You can see exactly the same level of design, and we wanted to give viewers this special vantage as a take of the classic noir genre that the film is part of.”
Nightmare Alley follows charismatic but down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle (Cooper), who endears himself to clairvoyant Zeena (Collette) and her has-been mentalist husband Pete (David Strathairn) at a traveling carnival. Stanton crafts a golden ticket to success, using this newly acquired knowledge to grift the wealthy elite of 1940s New York society. With the virtuous Molly (Rooney Mara) loyally by his side, Stanton plots to con a dangerous tycoon (Richard Jenkins) with the aid of a mysterious psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who might be his most formidable opponent yet.
“When we designed and shot, we were always thinking color and black and white,” DP Dan Laustsen said. “The classic lighting I have used is an homage to all the incredible masters of cinematography who have inspired me.”
The color version of Nightmare Alley opens today nationwide.
Here are the L.A. showdates for the black-and-white version:
January 15-16: New Beverly Cinema
January 14-20: AMC The Grove
January 14-20: Landmark
January 21-23: Los Feliz Theater, American Cinematheque