Lately there’s been a lnumber of actors who I’ve grown to admire in recent months and a trio of them are starring together in this vicious trailer for the factual-based thriller Lawless.

Directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition, The Road), and based on Matt Bondurant’s original novel The Wettest County in the World, the Prohibition-set story follows two brothers (Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy) who start making money by producing corn liquor through a villainous contact (Gary Oldman). They end up becoming drawn into a war with the government officials (including a bad-ass Guy Pearce) whose job it is to enforce the alcohol ban. Both men are also torn between the women they compete for (Mia Wasikowska and recent Oscar-nominee Jessica Chastain).

Fellow film fanatics already believe this to be a potential Oscar-contender but that is still months and months away. As many of you know, I’m delighted to see one of my new obsessions Jessica Chastain continuing to work this year after making six (!) films last year which included her delightful turn as Celia Foote in The Help. It will be interesting to see how she does as a potentially feisty love interest. Likewise seeing Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman leading this film will also create a buzz of excitement for film fans with both set to appear together this summer in the highly anticipated comic-book sequel The Dark Knight Rises. However the jury will still be out on whether Shia LaBeouf can handle a serious role and it should be intriguing to see whether he can pull off the criminal role well.

The film will be presented at Cannes later this year before being released in the UK on August 31st.