Move over, Christian Grey, there’s a new and perhaps more charismatic dom in town.
A24 has finally released the teaser trailer for ‘Pillion’, a new queer romantic dramedy starring Alexander Skarsgard (‘The Legend of Tarzan’) and Harry Melling (‘Harry Potter’ films) about a biker-gang leader who forms a BDSM relationship with an awkward gay man.
Skarsgard plays the role of Ray, the “enigmatic” and “impossibly handsome biker” who takes timid Colin, portrayed by Melling – as his submissive.
Some awkwardly funny but romantic moments happen along the way as their unconventional relationship develops.
The film is adapted from the 2020 novel ‘Box Hill’ by Adam Mars-Jones.
Written and directed by Harry Lighton as his feature debut, ‘Pillion’ premiered at the Cannes Film Festival early this year and received a seven-minute standing ovation.
Set for release via A24, the famed studio behind Oscar-winning film ‘Everything, Everywhere All At Once’ and cult horror ‘Midsommar’, in 2026.
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Not trying to be ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’
While the film has several BDSM sex scenes, with Skarsgard revealing that he and Melling have shot “way more graphic stuff” than what was shown in the teaser, Variety explained that ‘Pillion’ is not attempting to be the “racier” version of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’.
In fact, the teaser showed a meet-cute moment between Colin and Ray at a bar, while Bloomberg also listed seemingly cliche rom-com tropes present in the film, such as “an awkward introduction to the parents and a second-act crisis that threatens to sink the relationship but is swiftly resolved.”
IndieWire described the movie as “a deeply moving love story… chains, gags and all,” while Vanity Fair critic Richard Lawson called it a “disarmingly poignant drama of discovery.”
‘Pillion’ is “laced with a wry sense of humor” and “manages to be both understated and explicit in the way Lighton presents practically everything that happens in Colin and Ray’s unconventional relationship,” wrote Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge.
Before the screening at Cannes, Lighton said he wanted ‘Pillion’ “to make you laugh, make you think, make you feel and make you horny.”
The director later explained that he also wanted his mother to be able to watch the film and enjoy it.
“It’s important to me that people see [the film] who aren’t in atypical relationships. I think that they will come away with more interesting questions and maybe rethink some of their own behaviors,” said Lighton.
‘Portrayed with the perfect amount of respect, but not too much respect’: Skarsgard
Skarsgard admittedly found sex scenes in movies boring and unrealistic, but Lighton’s approach with ‘Pillion’ convinced him to trust the first-time director’s vision.
“I was excited to shoot those sex scenes and orgies, because they were so awkward and funny and weird,” Skarsgard said, according to Bloomberg.
“Generally, sex scenes in movies are quite boring. They’re often sanitized and filmed in a way that is not real,” he added.
Lighton also did not “put on silk gloves to tell this story,” Skarsgard noted with appreciation for the director at the Zurich Film Festival.
“He embraced the awkwardness of it. All these characters were fully fledged and the sex scenes weren’t graphic for the sake of being graphic.”
“We shot way more graphic stuff than you’ve seen just now,” the actor said.
“I think my mom will like this movie, and it’s about kinky gay bikers and a D/s relationship. Portrayed with the perfect amount of respect, but not too much respect,” Skarsgard added.
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