Metallica have unveiled the first trailer for their upcoming, IMAX-conquering 3D concert film, Metallica Through the Never, and, as expected, the blockbuster-sized flick looks outrageous. Flames, car wrecks, masked horsemen, and mobs of people in riot gear dominate the preview above.
The forthcoming feature blends performance footage, filmed in Vancouver last August, with a narrative thread starring Dane DeHaan (The Place Beyond the Pines, The Amazing Spider-Man 2) as a roadie “sent out on an urgent mission.” Through the Never will open on every IMAX screen in North America on September 27; the movie, directed by Nimród Antal, will roll out to standard theaters a week later, on October 4.
Frontman James Hetfield recently told Billboard that the cost of making Through the Never — and the run-up to this year’s Orion Music + More festival — has delayed the band’s intended follow-up to 2008’s Death Magnetic LP. “I want it done yesterday,” Hetfield said, “and [Orion] and this movie is keeping us pretty busy at this point and it’s taking a lot of our time and effort. We’ve been touring some obscure places; I guess basically what we’re trying to do is pay for this movie, so the touring is keeping us from getting in there and finishing the record. Right now the focus is on the movie.”
That said, the heavy metal legends have started work on their next full-length. “We got out into the room and jammed and we’ve come up with enough material for a record, for sure,” he said. “We’ve gone through maybe one-tenth of the material that’s on our riffs CDs. We’ve got enough for an album, we just haven’t had enough time to really focus on it and dial in and start whittling it into these masterpieces, hopefully.”
Bassist Robert Trujillo added, “The grooves and the riffs that are already on the radar are really, really awesome. We’ve still got more riffs to go through and jam out and throw into the process, but we’re getting there, and we’ll have something great, hopefully, in the next year.” After, of course, the festival, the photo book, and the sneakers.
