Secret societies of assassins with weird rules getting taken down by their best-trained assassin in a bloody, revenge-fueled murder spree are so hot right now. Basically, everyone wants their own John Wick, and Netflix’s stab at that is the upcoming Gunpowder Milkshake. The female-led action film starring Karen Gillan (Doctor Who, Guardians of the Galaxy) just landed its first trailer, and Gunpowder Milkshake is looking pretty brutal and kind of ridiculous.
The film follows Eva (Gillan), a deadly assassin, as she gets caught up in protecting an eight-year-old girl from a secret society of bad people. This brings her mother (Lena Headey), another deadly assassin, back into her life and the two join up with a trio of equally deadly assassins — played by Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino to take on Paul Giamatti as he chews the scenery. It doesn’t look like there’s too much depth to the plot, but there does look like there’s a ton of action and a kick-ass silk jacket that (possibly unwisely) connects the film visually to Nicolas Winding Refn’s classic revenge thriller, Drive.
The movie is written and directed by Israeli filmmaker Navot Papushado, who carved a bit of name for himself in the revenge genre with Big Bad Wolves back in 2013 but hasn’t done anything since. It’s hard to tell if he’ll be able to deliver on the over-the-top action that the Gunpowder Milkshake trailer and genre hint at, but the slow-motion diner fight seems to at least be interesting. If he can pull it off, Netflix will have another franchise on its hands. STX Films, which produced the movie and sold it to Netflix, is already working on a sequel.
Gunpowder Milkshake will release on July 14, as Netflix once again tries to dominate the summer film schedule.
