The Orchard has released a new trailer for the unique heist thriller American Animals. Directed by Bart Layton, the filmmaker behind the compelling documentary The Imposter, the film is based on the true story of four friends who attempted to execute one of the most daring heists in U.S. history, stealing a rare book from a college library’s secure archives. Layton’s take on the subject matter, however, is a brilliant blend of fiction and non-fiction, as the actors’ true life counterparts appear sporadically throughout the film as talking heads, providing hindsight-infused context to the boneheaded actions of these four privileged white dudes.

This trailer does a great job of showcasing Layton’s gorgeous shot composition, as well as the terrific performances from Evan Peters and Barry Keoughan. Peters in particular is fantastic here, in a performance that’s further proof that this guy should be a movie star already.

Check out the new American Animals trailer below. The film also stars Ann Dowd, Blake Jenner, and Jared Abrahamson and opens in theaters on June 1st.

Here’s the official synopsis for American Animals:

American Animals is the unbelievable but entirely true story of four young men who attempt to execute one of the most audacious art heists in U.S. history. The film centers around two friends from the middle-class suburbs of Lexington, Kentucky.

 

Spencer (Barry Keoghan), is determined to become an artist but feels he lacks the essential ingredient that unites all great artists – suffering. His closest friend, Warren (Evan Peters), has also been raised to believe that his life will be special, and that he will be unique in some way. But as they leave the suburbs for universities in the same town, the realities of adult life begin to dawn on them and with that, the realization that their lives may in fact never be important or special in any way. Determined to live lives that are out of the ordinary, they plan the brazen theft of some of the world’s most valuable books from the special collections room of Spencer’s college Library. Enlisting two more friends, accounting major Eric (Jared Abrahamson) and fitness fanatic Chas (Blake Jenner), and taking their cues from heist movies, the gang meticulously plots the theft and subsequent fence of the stolen artworks. Although some of the group begin to have second thoughts, they discover that the plan has seemingly taken on a life of its own. Unfolding from multiple perspectives, and innovatively incorporating the real-life figures at the heart of the story, writer-director Bart Layton (The Imposter) takes the heist movie into bold new territory.