Michael Pena, currently cracking people up as Luis in Ant-Man and the Wasp, is getting a shot at a rare lead role in Netflix's Extinction.
In a plot that echoes Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter, Pena plays Peter, a maintenance worker at a high-tech building who has horrifying visions of the end of the world. Even his wife (Lizzy Caplan) seems to think it's all in his head. Until one night when they're at a party and the alien invasion begins. Now, he'll have to save his family and remember the terrifying nightmares he's tried to forget.
The film co-stars Mike Colter (Luke Cage) and Tom Riley (DaVinci's Demons). Academy Award nominee Eric Heisserer (Arrival) re-wrote the original script by Spenser Cohen and Brad Kane, with acclaimed director Ben Young (Hounds of Love) behind the camera.
Extinction hits Netflix on Friday, July 27.
About Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about.
I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague.
Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work.
In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo.
I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.
