prettiest. monster. ever.

Sarah Polley is one of my favorite actresses, so I was psyched when I heard she'd be starring in a science fiction thriller with Adrien Brody. The film, Splice, follows two geneticists as they experiment with splicing human and animal DNA, creating a hybrid creature named Dren. In addition to the stellar cast, Guillermo del Toro is attached to the project as an executive producer. Vincenzo Natali, the director who brought us the fantastic Cube, is helming the film.

A number of promotional images of Dren have been released and the creature is gorgeous. Adult Dren is played by French actress Delphine Chaneac, and the images suggest that most of Dren's special effects were accomplished post-production as opposed to with prosthetics and make-up (del Toro's favored methods). In addition to widely set eyes for a larger field of vision and a tail for balance, Dren's legs are composed of three sections of similar length, comparable to the hind legs of running animals. Although plot synopses have referred to Dren as a "winged human-chimera," no such images have yet to be released.

Although Biology in Science Fiction made some valid points about scientific inaccuracies in the film's premise, Splice has the potential to be a gorgeous edition to modern science fiction. Emphasis on "fiction."