Adam Brody, Leighton Meester and Taran Killam have ominous on-screen reunion in River Wild trailer
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It's whitewater rafting gone very, very wrong in the new trailer for River Wild.
In the clip, above, we're introduced to brother-sister pair Gray and Joey (played by Taran Killam and Leighton Meester, respectively) who love but distrust each other, as they embark on a whitewater rafting trip with two tourists and the siblings' childhood friend, Trevor (played by Adam Brody).
Per the official synopsis, once the group become stranded in raging rapids, the thrill-seeking trip quickly turns from exciting to utterly terrifying as the rafters are trapped in a desperate fight for their lives, all while someone seems intent on sabotage to ensure shocking secrets stay buried. To survive the wild river, Joey will have to face her fears, and everyone will have to develop killer instincts before they're torn apart by deception aboard the raft, or by deadly waters wreaking havoc all around them.
It all sounds very fraught, but the process of actually making the movie was anything but for the principal cast, all of whom share history — Meester and Brody are married and have worked together a number of times, and the two and Killam previously worked on the ABC sitcom Single Parents together. (As Brody explains to EW: "We're all family or close to it, and it was a thrill to experience with each other.")
Dávid Lukács/Universal 1440 Adam Brody, Leighton Meester and Taran Killam in 'River Wild'
"We filmed in Hungary, Slovakia, and Bosnia, and drove to and from each location through Eastern Europe. We were outside in the elements — the heat of summer, on the ground or in the cold water, the racing rapids, or on the raft," Meester explains. "The emotional process was challenging as well, but having my partner, and one of my dearest friends as the cast with whom I'd share these experiences made every moment enjoyable and put me at ease."
Meester says she and Brody did discuss how "uncomfortable" it could be if they brought the tense source material home with them at the end of the day, but ultimately, the experience "was oddly natural."
"This kind of material was easier to do with someone I trust so much. He knows me so well, and our intimacy allowed us to freely work within both our boundaries and gave me an innate sense of safety," she says.
Her husband, though, had a humorous take on it. "I was a bit worried at the outset that we would take our work home with us, but it was easy enough to switch off between takes, let alone on the way home," Brody says, adding, "But my absolute favorite part of filming was chasing Leighton through the woods at full speed."
Brody isn't the only one who takes the opportunity to make a good-natured jab at his wife. Killam, who is married to Marvel Cinematic Universe star Cobie Smulders, jokes of the physical prep for the role, "My wife has done a bunch of action films but I've never been a part of something so physically demanding. Now I've got one up on her because I've trained at an Olympic whitewater facility in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia and she has not."
The new film, which is a reimagining of Curtis Hanson's 1994 thriller that starred Kevin Bacon and Meryl Streep, hails from director Ben Ketai (StartUp, Chosen). Killam, who says he loves the original and remembers seeing it "opening weekend and many times since," explains how the new film differs from its inspiration.
"All of the drama in the original arises from circumstance. They happen upon the bad guys," he says. "In our movie, the danger comes from within the group. The drama comes out of the existing tension between the characters. [It's] a more intimate and gritty story, but in the same exciting setting as the original."
River Wild, which is being hailed as a "nail-biting adventure," is available to own on Digital, Blu-ray™, and DVD on Aug. 1 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
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