Summit has released the first Child 44 trailer for director Daniel Espinosa's (Safe House) politically charged serial killer thriller.  Based on the novel by Tom Rob Smith, the film takes place in 1953 Soviet Russia and stars Tom Hardy as a secret police agent who comes under fire when he refuses to denounce his wife (Noomi Rapace) as a traitor.  Another Tom Hardy movie, another crazy Eastern European accent.  The guy simply does not do half measures when it comes to his dialects, which makes sense since he's not really "half measures" kind of actor.

Beyond the accent, the movie looks promising.  Child murder is a gritty subject, maybe the grittiest, and Child 44 looks appropriately grim without getting lost in the darkness of that subject matter.  The most intriguing element is the struggle within the communist regime - they can't acknowledge that such horrible things happen under their watch, but they also simply can't overlook the murder of 44 children, even if "murder is a capitalist disease".  Child 44 has the architecture of a great thriller, an outstanding cast, and a goofy Tom Hardy accent.  That's a pretty great combination.

Watch the Child 44 trailer below.  Gary Oldman, Paddy ConsidineJoel KinnamanJason Clarke, and Vincent Cassel also star.  Child 44 opens in theaters on April 17th.

Here's the official synopsis for Child 44:

A politically-charged serial killer thriller set in 1953 Soviet Russia, CHILD 44 chronicles the crisis of conscience for secret police agent Leo Demidov [Tom Hardy], who loses status, power and home when he refuses to denounce his own wife, Raisa [Noomi Rapace], as a traitor. Exiled from Moscow to a grim provincial outpost, Leo and Raisa join forces with General Mikhail Nesterov [Gary Oldman] to track down a serial killer who preys on young boys. Their quest for justice threatens a system-wide cover-up enforced by Leo’s psychopathic rival Vasili [Joel Kinnaman], who insists “There is no crime in Paradise.”

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