Poor Things Trailer: Emma Stone And Yorgos Lanthimos Reunite For A Frankenstein-Inspired Story

Emma Stone won an Oscar for singing and dancing her way across Los Angeles in "La La Land," but you haven't truly lived until you've watched her casually threaten to step on rabbits' necks and battle Rachel Weisz for Olivia Colman's favor in "The Favourite." Stone and "The Favourite" director Yorgos Lanthimos have since reunited for a pair of films, the first of which is titled "Poor Things" and will make its way to theaters near the start of this year's awards season. But unlike their first movie, this one sees Stone trading out her usual appearance for raven-colored hair that makes her look more like a Tim Burton heroine (or an Edward Gorey illustration made flesh and blood).

Adapted from Alasdair Gray's 1992 novel of the same name, "Poor Things" weaves a Victorian-era sci-fi yarn that knowingly evokes the work of Mary Shelley (hence the general Gothic chic). The movie follows Stone's Bella Baxter as the formerly-dead young woman, who has only just been de-corpsified by the unconventional Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), sets out on a globe-hopping adventure with a smooth and skeevy lawyer named Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo). The whole thing sounds like Lanthimos' answer to "Bride of Frankenstein," except here the Bride is the actual lead, and her lack of experience means that she neither knows nor cares about the social norms of the world around her.

For more on that, head on down and check out the film's newly-unveiled trailer for yourselves ... and pay no attention to the (ahem) unusually-shaped window behind Stone in the above photo.

Yorgos Lanthimos is mainly known for his bleak, deadpan approach to comedy and overriding commitment to weirdness, yet there's a clear, unifying idea at the heart of all his artistry. His movies like "Dogtooth," "The Lobster," and "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" take place in worlds that tend to be governed by inexplicably strange and often bizarre rules or social customs. It seems to be his way of encouraging us to question the customs we regularly abide by in own lives and whether, when you step back and look at them from a different perspective, they might start to feel pretty twisted themselves.

That theme is equally present in "The Favourite" and it looks to rear its head again in "Poor Things," with Bella gradually coming to stand against the prejudices and bigotry that dictate the setting around her — in her own messy way. Meanwhile, with "The Favourite" and "Cruella" scribe Tony McNamara having penned the script for "Poor Things," he and Emma Stone are poised to continue their own string of fittingly nasty, satirical stories about deeply flawed but compelling women navigating the backward situations in which they find themselves. (Yes, that's my way of saying I mostly dug "Cruella." Do with this what you will.)

"Poor Things" opens in theaters on September 8, 2023. Its synopsis reads as follows:

From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter's protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.