Out-of-the-Furnace-sliceAfter making a very affecting feature debut with 2009’s Oscar-winning Crazy Heart, Scott Cooper returns behind the camera for his sophomore feature, Out of the Furnace, which has long been one of the year’s most anticipated movies.

Christian Bale and Casey Affleck lead an all-star cast, and the early reviews following the film’s world premiere at the AFI Fest last week are encouraging. With just a few weeks before the film heads into cinemas stateside, Relativity has released an extended TV spot, featuring pieces of new footage scattered throughout.

From Scott Cooper, the critically-acclaimed writer and director of Crazy Heart, comes a gripping and gritty drama about family, fate, circumstance, and justice. Russell Baze (Christian Bale) has a rough life: he works a dead-end blue collar job at the local steel mill by day, and cares for his terminally ill father by night. When Russell’s brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) returns home from serving time in Iraq, he gets lured into one of the most ruthless crime rings in the Northeast and mysteriously disappears. The police fail to crack the case, so – with nothing left to lose – Russell takes matters into his own hands, putting his life on the line to seek justice for his brother.

Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker, Willem Dafoe, Zoe Saldana, Sam Shepard, and Boyd Holbrook star alongside the leading duo, making for one of the most promising casts of the year.

Cooper is directing from a script he co-wrote with Brad Ingelsby (Hold on to Me, The Dynamiter), with Leonardo DiCaprio producing.

Out of the Furnace hits US cinemas on December 6th, with its UK release date set a little later for 31st January, by which time we should know if it will be heading to the Oscars like Cooper’s debut.

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