Seventeen years after working together on Wanted, director Timur Bekmambetov and actor Chris Pratt have reteamed for a sci-fi thriller called Mercy, which is heading for a January 23, 2026 release date. The first trailer for the movie was just unveiled at New York Comic-Con – and you can check it out in the embed above! The trailer shows Pratt’s character being accused of murdering his wife by an AI that serves as judge, jury, and executioner. Strapped to a chair, he sets out to clear his name using an Internet connection and security camera footage… so, in the end, we get another Bekmambetov project that boils down to “person stares at screens.” They can shake it up in a variety of ways, but this Screenlife stuff is overstaying its welcome for me.
This production took advantage of the virtual production method known as The Volume, which uses LED panels as backdrops. Sporting a screenplay written by Marco Van Belle (Arthur & Merlin), Mercy tells a story that is “set in the near future when capital crime has increased” and follows “a detective (Pratt] who is accused of a violent crime and forced to prove his innocence.” Pratt is joined in the cast by Rebecca Ferguson (Dune), Annabelle Wallis (Malignant), and World Boxing Council middleweight champ Kali Reis, who recently shared the screen with Jodie Foster in the HBO series True Detective: Night Country.
During the New York Comic-Con panel, Pratt said (as reported by Deadline) that the movie was shot like a stage play with 60 minute full-length takes. Producer Charles Roven said, “We got a pitch from a writer, Marco, who wrote the script. When we first got the script, people were talking about AI, and it wasn’t happening yet. When we started talking about the movie, all of a sudden, companies were dealing with AI, and the future wasn’t definitely not far away. The fact that the movie takes place in 2029, I think every day, every week, every month that goes by, there’s something more that makes our movie true.“
In addition to directing Wanted (which starred Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, but featured Pratt as an office worker who takes a keyboard to the face in what may be the most memorable moment of the film), Bekmambetov has made Night Watch, Day Watch, Profile, Ben-Hur, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, V2. Escape from Hell, The Irony of Fate 2, Yolki 1914, Yolki 5, Escape from Afghanistan, The Arena, Nochnoy bazar, and Peshawar Waltz. He has also produced such films as 9, Apollo 18, Unfriended and its sequel, Hardcore Henry, The Snow Queen and its follow-ups, Searching, Missing, other entries in the Yolki franchise, the recent War of the Worlds, and many more. A sequel to Wanted was in development for years, but never made it into production.
What did you think of the Mercy trailer? Are you looking forward to this movie? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
