A couple of first images from Viggo Mortensen’s new post-apocalyptic horror movie “The Road” have appeared online over the last week or so. (I hesitate to call it horror, but I guess it has to be, what with cannibals being involved and whatnot, right?) The New York Times also did an extensive story on the project, including interviews with the director John Hillcoat and star Viggo Mortensen. The filmmakers seem to want to distance themselves from the likes of “Mad Max”, which they consider a fantastical version of the apocalypse. Theirs, on the other hand, will be gritty and as real as possible.

Hillcoat said this about his film’s attempt at realism:

“What’s moving and shocking about McCarthy’s book is that it’s so believable,” Mr. Hillcoat said. “So what we wanted is a kind of heightened realism, as opposed to the ‘Mad Max’ thing, which is all about high concept and spectacle. We’re trying to avoid the clichés of apocalypse and make this more like a natural disaster.” He imagined the characters less as “Mad Max”-ian freaks outfitted in outlandish biker wear, he added, than as homeless people. They wear scavenged, ill-fitting clothing and layers of plastic bags for insulation.

Read the rest of the article over at the NY Times.

“The Road”, starring Mortensen and directed by Hillcoat, is bsed on Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.

Images — the first one is from the NYT article, the second one from Row Three: