In this house, the statement in the headline is enough to have many of us rushing to the internet to see if tickets are available yet. Dust Bunny marks Bryan Fuller’s feature film directorial debut, but you already know his work: from Pushing Daisies, from Wonderfalls, from Dead Like Me, from Hannibal—the much-loved, over-too-soon series that dug into Fuller’s reinterpretation of the relationship between Hannibal Lecter (played by an incredible Mads Mikkelsen) and special agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy).
Now, Fuller is back with Dust Bunny, which is all I needed to hear. But here’s the synopsis, should you need more convincing:
Ten-year-old Aurora has a mysterious neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen) who kills real-life monsters. He’s a hit man for hire. So, when Aurora needs help killing the monster she believes ate her entire family, she procures his services. Suspecting that her parents may have fallen victim to assassins gunning for him, Aurora’s neighbor guiltily takes the job. Now, to protect her, he’ll need to battle an onslaught of assassins―and accept that some monsters are real.
The trailer’s many charms include Mikkelsen in a yellow tracksuit with a sword, looking like a warped version of Uma Thurman in Kill Bill; a field of sunflowers absolutely dropped in to remind you of the brightness-and-death vibe of Pushing Daisies; and the kind of slightly magical, peculiarly heightened world that Fuller is so, so good at creating. It’s not our world, I’m pretty sure, but it’s not so different in some ways—one of them being that people seem to throw the term “monster” around willy-nilly without being super clear about what they mean by it.
Dust Bunny co-stars Sophie Sloan as Aurora, and also features Sigourney Weaver (firing high heel guns?) and David Dastmalchian. It’s in theaters December 5.
