Brad Pitt is ready to face the very savageness of nature in an all-new action spectacle from director David Ayer (Fury, End of Watch, Sabotage) in Heart of the Beast, and this is an adrenaline charging watch that will leave you overrun with energy and emotion.

Take your first look at Heart of the Beast below:

Here’s the official synppsis:

After a harrowing plane crash, retired U.S. Special Forces officer James Belmont (Brad Pitt) and his combat dog, Odin, find themselves stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness. Together, they are forced into a brutal fight for survival against the elements. From acclaimed filmmaker David Ayer, Heart of the Beast is an intense adventure thriller that explores the unbreakable bond between a man and his best friend as they face their greatest battle yet.

Bringing Academy Award-winner Brad Pitt back together with former collaborator David Ayer, whose first effort produced the lauded WWII tank epic, Fury, Heart of the Beast takes audiences directly into the sacage heart of darkness of man vs nature as dormer US Special Forces Green Beret James Belmont (Brad Pitt), and his retired combat dog Odin, a Belgian Malinois, find themselves on the edge of the unknown in Alaska, as they are forced to suirvive by any means together in order to find their way back to home, and the edge and emotion of this piece os really gong to tap hold.

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Recalling the likes of Rambo and Lone Survivor, Heart of the Beast is engaging and very moving thriller that not only is set to deliver edge of your seat action, but also focuses in on the emotional connection between veterans and the animals they serve with, along with the distressing elements of PTSD, and there’s going to be plenty of heavy dramatic pieces in thsi film from death-defying natural environments, to wild, feral animals, and the gut-wrenching journey of man and dog to find their way back home.

Shot in Southern New Zealand, Heart of the Beast is a stunningly beautiful film, and it offers a perfect canvas to explore just how far and man dog will go together in their extraordinary will to survive.

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Get ready for the ultimate tale of man and dog vs wild when Heart of the Beast arrives in cinemas later this year.

Image: Paramount Pictures

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While audiences will easily be won over by the appearance of Jared Leto as The Joker and Margot Robbie as the deranged Harley Quinn, my attention has turned to the wild card of the group: non-villain Colonel Rick Flag, a Special Forces operator and right hand man to Task Force X’s mastermind Amanda Waller, who will be played in the film by rising talent Joel Kinnaman.

Originally introduced to the comic books in 1959 by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru, before writer John Ostrander acquired him for his critically lauded rival of the Suicide Squad, Rick Flag Jr was a dedicated soldier recruited to Task Force X by Amanda Waller. Although somewhat of a blunt and efficient instrument, Flag took deep personal issues with Waller’s orders and was also blindsided by his love for fellow Squad mate Karin Grace, as well as his feelings for super villain Nightshade.

Flag was a complex character through the book’s entire run, performing well in executing Waller’s will while falling into fits of despair at the horrors and atrocities that he was forced to sign off on. Flag’s single biggest story moment came when he set out to destroy the supervillain terrorist group known as The Jihad, who were trying to utilise a Nazi era nuclear bomb. Flag would slew his way through the terrorists and confront its leader Rustam, with both characters seemingly dying in a blast as they fought to the death.

But given that no one ever really dies in comics, Flag was found to have escaped the blast before being captured, and was then rescued by Task Force X member Bronze Tiger in ‘Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag’. Given the choice to resign by his superiors he chose not to, uttering that the Suicide Squad will always ‘need a Rick Flag’.

Flag’s appearance in Ayer’s film is cause for excitement, especially in the way that it is likely to break up the narrative. While you have a crew of out-for-themselves villains, and a puppet master like Waller who has her own grand schemes, Flag is likely to be the everyman character who will work towards the greater good. The various trailers and publicity materials have shown that he’ll have a healthy dislike for Will Smith’s Floyd Lawton/Deadshot, and that he appears to have had a past relationship with Cara Delevinge’s sweet archeologist June Moon, who is later possessed by the entity known as The Enchantress.

While British thespian Tom Hardy had initially signed on for the role, he had to relinquish it due to scheduling conflicts with The Revenant (something he was publically displeased by). Jake Gyllenhaal was said to have passed on the role, while Jon Bernthal and Joel Edgerton were also in the running after Hardy’s departure. But in the end, it would be Kinnaman who earned a spot on the Squad, and based on the footage we’ve seen so far he is really holding his own.

I for one am happy that Kinnaman won the job. He’s an actor who has made bold choices throughout his career including roles in the Easy Money trilogy, Robocop, The Killing and a recent appearance in House of Cards. I myself always thought that Hardy’s casting was a bit too on the nose, and with Kinnaman I think we’ve got an actor who can make the character his own, projecting a man who is not only imposing and tough, but who has a great deal of vulnerability, especially in relation to his romance with June Moon.

Kinnaman looks the part as well, standing at an imposing 6’2, and he reportedly underwent rigorous firearms and combat training with the likes of ex-Navy SEALs to get into character.

Kinnaman will have his work cut out for him as Rick Flag, with his responsibility to wrangle this twisted collection of criminals, crazies, and psychopaths that make up Task Force X. But armed to the teeth and boasting a ‘take no shit’ attitude, he’s all but guaranteed to complete his mission.

Suicide Squad opens on August 4 in New Zealand and Australia and on August 5 in the US and the UK.

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History Is Violent

In a compelling portrayal of the final battlefields of WWII, Fury transports audiences to a time and place that many saw, but few ever returned from. Director David Ayer holds nothing back in his depiction of the brutality of war, and the endless fight that it appears to be.

Living off of sips of hope that they might see the end, the men of the 2^nd Armoured Division are taking each day as it comes, knowing that this conflict is coming to an end, but without the comfort of certainty. Dropping the audience in the blood, guts and mud of the German front, any possibility or hope for glory is absent in this chronicle. Instead, you have ordinary men who are just trying to survive, while still retaining some of the humanity that they started off with.

The battles comes quick in Fury, with the pace and vigor of an ambush leaving men broken and dead. The most impressive battle of the film has to be the showdown between the crew of the Fury, a M4A3E8 Sherman tank and a German Tiger I, which must be seen to be believed. Ayer also injects a good dose of symbolism within the film, and when combined with authentic costuming, set design and Steven Price’s haunting score, creates a compelling film that honours the men who fought and sacrificed themselves.

Best Job I Ever Had

When it comes to the cast, Ayer has assembled a dream team with five amazing actors portraying incredibly different characters who inhabit the interior of a rolling Sherman tank named ‘Fury’.

Brad Pitt leads the pack as Sgt. Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier, a veteran of the North African, Normandy, and Belgium campaigns who has seen far too much war, and understands that men must die before his job can be finished. In Pitt’s performance, you get the sense of a man who has slowly but steadily lost his humanity and replaced this with the mission of getting his men home. No matter the task given to him by his superiors, Collier’s first priority is his crew, who affectionately call him ‘Top’. Pitt roughs it up as Collier, showing some serious aggression, and a ‘kill first, think later’ philosophy. Just like his crew, audiences will look to Collier in awe thanks to Pitt’s rousing performance.

At odds with Collier is new replacement gunner Norman Ellison, played by Logan Lerman — a naïve ‘green boy’ fresh from basic who has never seen the inside of a tank. Lerman effectively portrays the new kid who has no comprehension of what real violence is, and gets a very mean lesson thanks to Collier. Lerman also showcases an empathy as Norman, which also breaks up the rawness of Fury, giving the film some of its most touching moments.

The conscience of the tank crew comes in the form of Shia LaBeouf’s Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan, and as his name suggests, is a firm believer in God and a higher calling. Swan forms somewhat of a collective conscience for the crew, guiding them through the horrors of the war. However, as the operator of the tank’s main gun, he also dispenses quite a bit of it as well. This creates great conflict for Swan, and LeBouf expresses it perfectly cementing his place as the film’s scene stealer.

Michael Pena takes on the role of tank driver Trini ‘Gordo’ Garcia, a Mexican America who brings a certain flair to the crew of the ‘Fury’, as well as some slick driving abilities. As the prime navigator of the tank, Garcia is in the thick of the action at all times, and maintains a hard attitude when it comes to Norman.

Finally Jon Bernthal completes the crew as gunner assistant Grady ‘Coon-Ass’ Travis — the resident bully of the ‘Fury’ who has no time for Norman, and develops an antagonistic relationship with him. As things progress, you come to believe that he wasn’t always like this, and that the war has had a detrimental effect on his psyche and behaviour. Bernthal completely disappears into the role of Travis, creating a character that audiences may not respect, but will certainly come to empathise with.

Fury is a whirlwind of blood, guts and loyalty, and it stands as a compelling vision of the rawness of war. Intensely dramatic, it is undoubtedly one of the best films of the year.

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