Focus Features has debuted the first trailer for Somewhere, the latest from Lost in Translation writer/director Sofia Coppola. The film stars Stephen Dorff as a “a bad-boy A-list actor stumbling through a life of excess,” interrupted by the unexpected arrival of his 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning).

Coppola's critical status hit a bit of a snag with 2006's Marie Antoinette, but she's out of the eighteenth century and back in her comfort zone (perhaps too cozily?) with Somewhere, as evidenced in the understated clip.  The hipster in me is definitely looking forward to this one when it hits theaters on December 22, 2010.  Check out the trailer after the jump.

somewhere_poster_sofia_coppola

Here’s the official synopsis:

Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) is a bad-boy A-List actor stumbling through a life of excess while living at Hollywood’s legendary Chateau Marmont Hotel.  His days are a haze of drinks, girls, fast cars and fawning fans.  Cocooned in this celebrity-induced artificial world, Johnny has lost all sense of his true self.

Until, that is, his 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning) unexpectedly shows up and unwittingly begins to anchor him.  Johnny’s fragile connection to real life slowly revives in her presence. So when the time comes fro Cleo to leave, his sense of loss is palpable, but the gift of hope she has also brought him leads to a beautiful, poetic denouement imbued with all of Coppola’s remarkable powers to conjure mood and atmosphere.

Coppola's ear for music of course spills over into the trailer.  It band Phoenix (who nab a "featuring music by" credit) score the opening, while  The Strokes close with the rather precious "I'll Try Anything Once", a demo new to my ears.  Thanks, Sofia.

Click on over to Apple for HD.