“Haunting.” “Intoxicating.” “A feast for the eyes.” This is how critics described Tom Ford’s return to feature film work with Nocturnal Animals, which already screened at the Venice and Toronto film festivals. Now you can get a glimpse of what everyone is talking about with the first footage.
Focus Features, which picked up distribution for Nocturnal Animals last May, released a brief 20-second teaser for the film’s upcoming trailer — and things are already intense. Ford adapted the screenplay from the Austin Wright novel Tony and Susan, and the film takes its name from the story within that story. Amy Adams stars as a Los Angeles-based art dealer who receives a novel called Nocturnal Animals, written by her ex (Jake Gyllenhaal), in the mail after her husband (Armie Hammer) leaves on a business trip. The tale weaves in and out of this book that can be interpreted as a veiled threat.
The full trailer arrives online tomorrow at 11 a.m. EST, but you can watch the first teaser footage in the video below:
In addition, Focus released new character posters and an image to prepare for the upcoming release. Shown are Adams, Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, while the cast is rounded out Isla Fisher, Karl Glusman, Laura Linney, Andrea Riseborough, and Michael Sheen.
Before Nocturnal Animals, which will hit theaters on December 9th, Ford had only directed one other feature film, A Single Man starring Colin Firth (which you can watch now on Netflix). That, too, earned a great deal of awards buzz, and Firth was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars. Based on early word of mouth, it looks like that wasn’t a fluke.
Here’s the official description for Nocturnal Animals from Focus:
From writer/director Tom Ford comes a haunting romantic thriller of shocking intimacy and gripping tension that explores the thin lines between love and cruelty, and revenge and redemption. Academy Award nominees Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal star as a divorced couple discovering dark truths about each other and themselves in NOCTURNAL ANIMALS.
