Josh Hartnett's new role might even rival the Black Dahlia killer.
The Pearl Harbor actor appears to be playing a sinister villain in the first trailer of director M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming horror thriller, Trap.
The film—which hits theaters Aug. 9—stars Hartnett as a father who takes his daughter to a pop concert, but when he sees the venue surrounded by cop cars, he finds they're actually at the center of a trap set up for Hartnett's character, who is revealed to be the serial killer the police have been searching for.
But Shyamalan may have another big twist in store, as he's known for his surprise endings in movies like The Sixth Sense and The Village. And casting Hartnett as someone very much against type is exactly what the filmmaker was hoping to achieve with the shocking revelation.
"To find somebody that's a bonafide movie star, that's a great human being, and is willing to risk everything, man, that's a rare combination," he told Nerd Reactor April 16. "And sometimes you think that doesn't exist anymore, and then he walked in."
The director noted that he was looking for a handsome and charming actor that he would be able to put in a different role from what audiences are used to seeing, and that Josh's current choice to live a life away from Hollywood helped play into that.
"Josh was just in the right place as a human being," he continued. "He's raising his kids outside London, and you could tell the choices that he's making: Black Mirror, Oppenheimer, and then Trap."
As Shyamalan pointed out, Hartnett has been more specific with his career choices of late. The 45-year-old left Hollywood in the mid-aughts and moved England with wife Tamsin Egerton—with whom he shares four children—and continued his acting career there.
Although he's been more in the public eye since his role in the Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer, he's not paying too much attention to the idea of a "Josh Hartnett Renaissance."
"I have four kids, I live in the countryside," he recently told Gold Derby. "I'm busy either working or taking care of them, but thank you. That's really kind."
For more stars who have chosen to live life away from Hollywood, keep reading.
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