GENSOCIAL
The teaser trailer for Willy’s Wonderland has been released. Nicolas Cage stars in the upcoming twisted horror movie that finds the actor battling animatronic animals from a condemned theme park. The footage is very brief, but it gives potential viewers some insight into what they’re in for when they check this crazy movie out. As for when that will be, the studio plans to have it out at some point next year.
Willy’s Wonderland director Kevin Lewis recently revealed some new details about the movie. “Nic [Cage] plays a janitor who gets trapped in this children’s funhouse-amusement park with Willy, the animatronic weasel, and his gang,” says Lewis. As for his gang, they’re made up of the nightmares from children on their first trip to Chuck E. Cheese. You can read about the gang below.
“I call them the Psychopathic Animatronic Misfits… You’ve got Willy the Weasel, Artie the Alligator, Gus the Gorilla. There’s eight of them, and they spring to life and attack him and others, and Nic has to battle his way out. It’s like man versus machine! They’ve been doing this in the past and they picked the wrong guy: Nic.”
Nicolas Cage’s character is described as a “quiet drifter” who gets tricked into taking the janitorial job at the condemned theme park. Kevin Lewis notes, “It’s a fun, wacky, crazy rollercoaster ride movie. Willy’s Wonderland is like a retro-throwback to the ’80s. I grew up with Sam Raimi and Evil Dead and those kinds of fun ’80s horror and action horror films.” Even in the brief amount of footage we’ve been treated to, one can tell that the 80s are all over Willy’s Wonderland. Lewis explains.
“This was made – and I truly mean this – this was made by a fanboy for all the fanboys and -girls. A producer friend of mine, Jeremy Davis, brought me the project, and we both fell in love with it. We worked on it, we got Nic attached, he really fell in love with the project, and saw our vision of it, and we got it going. Nic’s been a fantastic partner on this movie. It’s vintage Nic. He just brings so much to this movie. I think people are going to really dig it.”
Kevin Lewis and Nicolas Cage were able to wrap filming on Willy’s Wonderland at the beginning of the year. “We wrapped right before the pandemic hit,” says Lewis. “It was crazy. We wrapped, and I came home, and then within two weeks we were in lockdown. Crazy.” However, it gave the director some extra time to work on the post-production process, which is something that a lot of directors were left with this past summer.
Even though Willy’s Wonderland isn’t out yet, Kevin Lewis already has some ideas for a sequel. “If the movie gods decide it, I think there’s many more adventures for Willy and his gang,” says the director. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see how the movie does when its released in theaters at some point next year. In the meantime, you can check out the first teaser trailer above, thanks to the Screen Media Films YouTube channel.
