‘Imperium’ Trailer: Daniel Radcliffe Has To Convince People He’s A White Supremacist
You’ve gotta hand it toDaniel Radcliffe. While he’ll probably always best be known for playing the Boy Who Lived, he’smade some really interesting and eclectic choices post-Harry Potter. You can currently see him playing a tech whiz inNow You See Me 2and a farting corpse inSwiss Army Man, and next we’ll see him as a fake white supremacist inImperium.
Based on a true story,Imperiumstars Radcliffe as an idealistic FBI agent who goes undercover to infiltrate a radical right-wing terrorist group. It’s a darker, grittier role than we’ve seen Radcliffe tackle in the past, and it requires him to bust out his American accent. Is he up for the challenge? Find out with theImperiumtrailer below.
Over the past few years, Radcliffe has emerged as one of the most exciting stars of his age. Part of that is his sheer versatility: he’s done romantic comedy (What If), historical drama (Kill Your Darlings), dark fantasy (Horns), television (A Young Doctor’s Notebook) and whateverVictor Frankensteinwas supposed to be. But he’s also just plain talented. His performance as a dead body inSwiss Army Manis — I kid you not — one of the very best of 2016 so far.Imperiumlooks like an intriguing next step for him, although it’s hard to tell just from the trailer how he fares here.
The story behindImperiumalso looks fascinating. It’s the feature directing debut ofDaniel Ragussis, who wrote the script with help fromMichael German, the real-life agent on whom the film is based. German spent over a decade working for the FBI, often going undercover among white supremacist militias and in one case successfully foiling a plot to attack a black church. He eventually resigned in 2004 after blowing the whistle on FBI mismanagement. Hopefully his involvement will giveImperiuma sheen of realism and a layer of nuance. This looks like something a little more thoughtful than your usual hero-agent tale.
Imperiumhits theaters and on demandAugust 19.
