Over the weekend we saw a very frail, over eager Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom in a viral teaser for Nightcrawler. The footage was extremely well-received and along with the announcement it would be playing at TIFF, served as a good way to get the film some early attention before dropping into what may be an Oscar run later this fall. Now we get a fuller look at the film in a new trailer and to say it's riveting stuff is an understatement.
Marking the directorial debut of veteran writer Dan Gilroy, the brother of Tony and a co-writer on The Bourne Legacy, the film's early synopsis was deceptively simple, following a man who stumbles into the underground world of Los Angeles crime journalism. An expanded plot breakdown tells us much more:
"NIGHTCRAWLER is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling -- where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou thrives. In the breakneck, ceaseless search for footage, he becomes the star of his own story."
The trailer builds and builds on Gyllenhaal's aggression before taking a seriously dark turn at the end, and this looks like it could be one of his most challenging roles yet. Also starring Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, and Riz Ahmed, Nightcrawler opens October 17th.
