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The trailer for Emerald Fennel’s new thriller Saltburn starring Jacob Elordi, Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike among a dozen other major stars has arrived and we have so many questions.
Like, for starters, why is Elordi, complete with English accent, wearing an eyebrow ring? Those lavish parties set on a remote English estate, is Saltburn some sort of queer Eyes Wide Shut? What is actually happening? All we know so far is apparently lot’s of people get lost in Saltburn (thanks creepy butler).
Actually, we do know a little more than that: the story revolves around Keoghan’s character Oliver, a scholarship student at London’s Oxford University (which Fennell herself attended) who befriends the far wealthier and charismatic Felix Catton played by Elordi and spends a summer at the latter’s sprawling, sinister, family estate. “A tale of privilege and desire,” it’s been described as. Complete with masquerades, dinner parties and mazes.
“Oh nice tux,” says Archie Madekwe’s character in one scene to Keoghan. “It’s a rental, right?” Fennell might be visiting familiar tropes – Beverly Hills 90210 anyone? And perhaps a little The Talented Mr Ripley for good measure? – but if we take her previous work as the barometer for originality Saltburn will no doubt twist itself into a surrealist knot by the second act. Her last major work, Promising Young Woman, earned the writer and director the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay among multiple other accolades. Recently, Fennell also played pregnant friend Midge in Barbie.
For his part, Elordi has been keeping himself busy with projects as it seems more and more likely that the much anticipated third season of Euphoria will remain on hold indefinitely, despite assertions that it’s happening. The Australian actor is wrapping up filming in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla where he plays Elvis across from Cailee Spaeny in the titular role of Priscilla Presley.
The film’s world is set in the early 00s, which goes to explain the eyebrow ring sported by Elordi’s character that we’re hoping doesn’t get resurgence.
Saltburn will be hitting cinemas November 16.
