Focus Features has released the first trailer and poster for The Eagle.  While I love me a good sword-and-sandals flick, I'm slightly worried about The Eagle due to Focus repeatedly kicking the movie down the schedule.  Also, the bloody mayhem of Centurion, which also involves the mysterious disappearance of Rome's 9th Legion (The Eagle was originally titled "The Eagle of the Ninth"), won't likely be repeated in Kevin Macdonald's PG-13 flick.  But I've liked Macdonald's previous work (State of Play, The Last King of Scotland) and Jamie Bell is a great actor.  I wish the same could be said of his costar Channing Tatum, but perhaps The Eagle will turn me around the guy.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and the poster.  The Eagle opens February 25, 2011.

Click over to Apple to see the trailer in HD.

Here's the official synopsis for The Eagle:

In 140 AD, two men - master and slave - venture beyond the edge of the known world on a dangerous and obsessive quest that will push them beyond the boundaries of loyalty and betrayal, friendship and hatred, deceit and heroism...The Roman epic adventure THE EAGLE stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell and is directed by Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald. 20 years earlier, Rome's 5,000-strong Ninth Legion, under the command of Flavius Aquila, marched north carrying their treasured golden Eagle emblem. They never returned; Legion and Eagle simply vanished into the mists. Hearing a rumor that the Eagle has been seen in a tribal temple in the far north, Flavius' son Marcus (Tatum), determined to restore the tarnished reputation of his father, is galvanized into action. Accompanied only by his slave Esca (Bell), Marcus sets out into the vast and dangerous highlands of Scotland - to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father's memory, and retrieve the hallowed Eagle. Along the way Marcus realizes that the mystery of his father's disappearance may well be linked to the secret of his own slave's identity and loyalty - a secret all the more pressing when the two come face-to-face with the warriors of the fearsome Seal Prince (Tahar Rahim).

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