'Earthquake Bird' Trailer: Alicia Vikander Has A Creepy Fixation In Netflix's Noir Thriller

Alicia Vikander has been a bit MIA since her starring role in 2018's Tomb Raider, but she's back with a vengeance in Wash Westmoreland's upcoming noir thriller Earthquake Bird. Perhaps too much of a vengeance: Vikander stars as a young expat who comes under investigation for her best friend's disappearance — and suspected murder — after a tumultuous love triangle takes a turn for the paranoid. Watch the Earthquake Bird trailer below.

Fresh off his Keira Knightley-starring period piece Colette, director Wash Westmoreland heads to 1989 Tokyo to adapt a novel from author Susanna Jones. Earthquake Bird is a paranoid thriller that stars Vikander as Lucy, an American expat who falls into a dangerous relationship with a handsome photographer (Naoki Kobayashi). But her obsession with him may or may not become violent when a charming newcomer Lily (Riley Keough) starts to cozy up to her man before suddenly disappearing under mysterious circumstances. Jack Huston also stars in Earthquake Bird.

Vikander has not had a starring role since 2018's Tomb Raider, for which she'll be returning for the sequel, but makes a smart move to collaborate with Westmoreland, whose Colette earned Knightley critical raves and whose Still Alice won Julianne Moore an Academy Award. And Vikander's particular brand of stony-faced mystery plays perfectly in Earthquake Bird, which uses the picturesque landscapes of Japan to eerie effect.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, which also debuted the trailer, Westmoreland said that Vikander was perfect for the role, particularly because it demanded that she learn "Japanese by rote" to pull off the dialogue that was "20 percent in Japanese."

"Alicia has just such a high standard of excellence for everything she does, and she completely aced that part of the challenge," Westmoreland said. "But also, just on a day-to-day level, she's such a complex and interesting actress, and she always brings so much depth and nuance to every scene."

Here is the synopsis for Earthquake Bird:

A psychologically unsettling and atmospheric thriller set in 1989 Tokyo from director Wash Westmoreland (Colette, Still Alice), Earthquake Bird follows Lucy Fly (Alicia Vikander), an enigmatic expat haunted by a painful past, who enters into an intense relationship with Teiji (Naoki Kobayashi), a handsome local photographer. Lucy's imperturbable exterior begins to crack when a naive newcomer, Lily Bridges (Riley Keough), becomes entangled in their lives and ends up missing – suspected dead.

Earthquake Bird opens in select theaters on November 1, 2019 before it makes its Netflix debut on November 15, 2019.