While it's easy to poke fun at the lousy treatment afforded to Ken Watanabe in Godzilla, he's still one of the most accomplished actors working today and his presence in a film is always a good thing. His next film promises to be a much better showcase of his talents, starring opposite Matthew McConaughey in Gus Van Sant's existential drama, Sea of Trees, and the first image from it has arrived.
Looking like it could have been a deleted scene from True Detective, this bleak image shows a bloodied McConaughey as an American who enters Japan's "Suicide Forest" to end his life, encountering Watanabe's character along the way. Naomi Watts co-stars as McConaughey's wife, and this looks like a very dark psychological character study, the kind that would normally play well this time of year. Van Sant has made this sort of two-hander before, but the less said about Gerry the better.
Unfortunately, Sea of Trees has yet to gain a release date, but we'll probably see it in 2015. [EW]
