Jun 22, 2016 02:44 PM EDT
On the heels of the Tim Burton-produced sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, hitting theaters a few days back, the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker is already focusing on his next project: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. The film, which stars his Dark Shadows collaborator Eva Green and actor Asa Butterfield, has just released a new trailer -- and it looks a lot like X-Men.
Earlier this week, producing studio 20th Century Fox released the second trailer for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, a film set to début later this year. Based on the 2011 novel of the same name penned by Ransom Riggs, the story follows a school filled with talented young people with strange abilities like the ability to float or eat from the back of their necks -- all of whom are led by a benevolent, British headmaster.
It's Xavier Institute for Higher Learning all right.
The trailer shows newly arrived Jacob (Butterfield, best known for films like Hugo and Ender's Game) being introduced to the school and told he is special. As he meets Miss Peregrine (Green, who recently ended her stint at Showtime's Penny Dreadful), he's also told he's one of the "peculiar children," even though he's not aware of having any powers -- and even more, he's the one who's supposed to save the school from outside threats.
The school works on a 24-hour time loop in the times of World War II, and a Nazi bomb is just about to hit them. But there's a bigger threat: Barron, terrifyingly portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson.
Miss Peregrine looks like a wonderful return to form for Burton, who has basically rehashed the same type of dark-looking, weird and Johnny Depp-and-Helena Bonham-Carter-starring movie for the past decade. Arguably, the last truly extraordinary and creative film that came out of the director's mind was Big Fish, which came out a full 13 years ago --- and other than former partner Bonham-Carter, he hasn't even worked with the same people from the movie since.
In any case, so far Miss Peregrine looks pretty exciting: not only is the story and look of the film a little twist on Burton's tried-and-true formula, but the cast is also pretty different from what he's used to, with Depp and Bonham-Carter nowhere to be seen. Besides Green, Butterfield and Jackson, other actors around include Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Oscar winner Judi Dench and Maleficent young actress Ella Purnell.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children hits theaters on September 30.
