Harrison Ford Befriends a CGI Dog in Debut Trailer for ‘Call of the Wild’

Here's an interesting quandary for you to puzzle over: When is Harrison Ford both the most obvious and least obvious choice for a role? Well, when it comes to next year's adaptation of Jack London's classic novel The Call of the Wild, Ford seems perfect to play a grizzled old hermit living along the Yukon River in the wilds of Alaska. At the same time, he also doesn't seem like the type of guy with even an ounce of patience for a cgi co-star, particularly when that cgi co-star is a dog.

Rather than endanger an actual Saint Bernard for the filming of this movie, the creators decided to go the cgi route for Buck, the dog at the heart of the story. Based on this first trailer, Ford is playing John Thornton, the aforementioned hermit and survivalist who takes in Buck after his previous owners mistreat him—don't worry, those assholes drown in a river not long after.

The thing about Harrison Ford is that I no longer buy him as the old man with a heart of gold. I would more readily imagine that Jeff Bridges or Nick Nolte or Sam Elliott would be the type of guy to seem dour and grizzled, but is actually a softie at heart. Ford looks like the type of guy who would shake his head at the dog abusers from a distance and then go back about his business.

The Call of the Wild grizzles its way into your heart on February 21, 2020.