Danny Boyle’s Trance gets a synopsis and we get a first look

Danny Boyle is definitely a director we keep an eye on. His next, TRANCE has its first look out today, along with a synopsis for the film.

TRANCE is partly inspired by a 2001 TV movie of the same name. Boyle also got back together with screenwriting partner, John Hodge. The scribe wrote a few of Boyle’s film like TRAINSPOTTING and A LIFE LESS ORDINARY.

Here’s the synopsis for the thriller: TRANCE, directed by Oscar®-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) and co-written by Oscar®-nominated long term collaborator John Hodge (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting) is a seductive and enigmatic thriller starring James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel and Rosario Dawson. Fine art auctioneer Simon (McAvoy), in league with a gang led by underworld boss Franck (Cassel), plots the audacious theft of a masterpiece by Goya from a major public auction. When Simon double-crosses the gang during the robbery, Franck retaliates violently and knocks him unconscious. In the aftermath of the heist, Simon sticks stubbornly – and perhaps shrewdly – to his claim that the violent trauma has left him with no memory of where he stashed the artwork. Unable to coerce the painting’s location from Simon, Franck and his associates reluctantly join forces with a charismatic hypnotherapist (Dawson) in a bid to get him to talk. But as they journey deeper into Simon’s jumbled psyche the boundaries between reality and hypnotic suggestion begin to blur and the stakes rise faster and far more dangerously than any of the players could have anticipated.

I’m loving the cast for this. I’m also loving the fact that it is mentioned in the USA Today article that a woman (Dawson) is the center of the film. This is what Boyle had to say, “I wanted to do an updated noir, give it a contemporary spin in terms of emotion. Noir is usually cold. I wanted it to be more emotionally charged. It’s the first time I put a woman at the heart of a movie.” They mention it alongside CHARADE (the 1963 version) which is a movie I adore that had a woman at the heart of the film amongst a great ensemble of men. If that’s any indication of what we might be seeing, then I’m double sold.