If you remember reading Cyrano de Bergerac in your high school English class, or even just watching Steve Martin’s modern-day interpretation Roxanne, get ready for a completely new telling of the classic story as a musical featuring Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage. This new Cyrano comes from director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement) and will be released in select theaters on Dec. 31.
Dinklage will play the brave warrior and wordsmith Cyrano, but with the actor's dwarfism replacing the infamous nose of the character as his perceived limitations in wooing the beautiful Roxanne (played by Haley Bennett). However, when a young soldier Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and Roxanne catch each other’s eye, Cyrano serves as the voice for Christian as a way of expressing his feelings, even if through another. Ben Mendelsohn also stars in the film.
Cyrano debuted at the Telluride Film Festival this fall, and as a result it already has a good bit of buzz surrounding it. Rotten Tomatoes has compiled the film’s reviews so far for a score of 82% positive, while Metacritic scores it at a 75. Dinklage is getting early Oscar buzz for his performance as well.
You can get a sense as to why in the trailer, which sees Dinklage heartbreakingly serve as the go-between; we don’t hear any singing from the actor best known for playing Tyrion Lannister, however. Elsewhere, the period setting and costumes look as lavish as you’d expect, and there appears to be some fun looking sword-fighting sequences to boot.
Watch the full trailer below.
Cyrano will get an exclusive run in theaters before the end of the year (just squeezing it in on Dec. 31) to ensure it qualifies for this year’s Academy Awards. It’ll start off in select theaters (likely New York and Los Angeles) before rolling out to additional theaters in subsequent weeks.
