‘Mortal Engines’ Featurette Introduces Stephen Lang’s Mo-Cap Mummy Zombie Assassin

Mortal Engines comes rumbling into theaters next weekend, bringing with it a cast of futuristic, post-apocalyptic characters. One of those characters is Shrike, a kind of mummy-zombie-assassin played (via mo-cap) by Stephen Lang. A new Mortal Engines featurette introduces you to Shrike – a character writer/producer Peter Jackson calls an “unstoppable force.” Watch the featurette below to learn all about this mummy-zombie-assassin.

Mortal Engines Featurette

I have to say, the marketing for Mortal Engines up until now has really undersold the fact that the film features an undead assassin. Had I been aware of that, I might be a bit more excited. Thankfully, we have this featurette. According to Stephen Lang in this video, his character Shrike has been killing people in horrible, brutal ways for 100 years…but he still has shards of humanity inside the husk of his body.

When /Film visited the Mortal Engines set last year, Lang talked a bit about his approach to the character, which was inspired by the movements of birds and insects:

“I’d say the real inspiration for the character came from predatory birds. And that starts really with the name, Shrike. As it happens in this particular edition of resurrected man, that year, that model, they were all given bird names. It just struck me as there was a predatory bird quality to him…and all of those wonderful insects that blend into the background and wait patiently either to avoid being eaten or to wait for something to eat. And so, there’s an element a quality of patience that they have…And that’s very much in keeping with this character who also can remain kind of in a state of immobility for centuries at a time if he chooses.”

I’m not sure what the general public reaction is to Mortal Engines at this point, and I have a feeling the film has been marketed a little poorly. Most of the marketing consists of shots of huge cities on wheels, which, admittedly, is pretty damn cool. But it’s clear from this featurette that there’s a lot more going on in the movie than meets the eye. Hopefully audiences will be willing to discover that when Mortal Engines opens December 14, 2018.

Hundreds of years after civilization was destroyed by a cataclysmic event, a mysterious young woman, Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar), emerges as the only one who can stop London — now a giant, predator city on wheels — from devouring everything in its path. Feral, and fiercely driven by the memory of her mother, Hester joins forces with Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan), an outcast from London, along with Anna Fang (Jihae), a dangerous outlaw with a bounty on her head.

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