Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) is bringing Philippe Petit’s astounding August 7, 1974 high-wire walk between the two World Trade Center towers to life in The Walk, which Sony has just released a trailer for. Check it out below!
“The caper is really compelling. It’s outrageous,” Zemeckis tells Entertainment Weekly of Petit’s incredible stunt. “It’s the story of an artist who risks his life to create a performance. Nobody does this anymore—something that is, uh, anarchistically benevolent. Banksy is the only guy who does this anymore. I wonder why that is, why people have gotten so … boring.”
Twelve people have walked on the moon, but only one man has ever, or will ever, walk in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers. Guided by his real-life mentor, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), and aided by an unlikely band of international recruits, Petit and his gang overcome long odds, betrayals, dissension and countless close calls to conceive and execute their mad plan.
With a screenplay by Zemeckis and Christopher Browne based on Petit’s book “To Reach the Clouds,” The Walk stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale, Ben Schwartz, Charlotte Le Bon, Clément Sibony and César Domboy. TriStar Pictures will release The Walk in IMAX 3D on October 2, 2015.