Zero-Dark-Thirty-UK-PosterKathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty has been surrounded with awards buzz in recent months, with leading lady Jessica Chastain particularly tipped to get an Oscar nomination for Best Actress when the final contenders are announced by the Academy this month.

The film is currently in limited release in the US, qualifying it for the Oscars, and will soon be going wide in the States as well as the UK.

We saw a great new Japanese poster earlier in the week, with Chastain front and centre, and now Universal have released a new thirty-second TV spot to get us all in the mood.

“The upcoming true-life drama “Zero Dark Thirty” details the decade-long global hunt for Osama bin Laden, and in this exclusive in-theater banner, you get a satellite view of his secret compound in Pakistan. Two Black Hawk helicopters are seen approaching the fortified compound in the moments before Navy SEALs carried out the raid that lead to bin Laden’s death. The movie from the Oscar-winning writer and director of “The Hurt Locker,” will hit theaters on December 19.”

Chastain is joined by an all-star cast, headed up by Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton, Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke, James Gandolfini, Scott Adkins, Jennifer Ehle, Chris Pratt, Édgar Ramirez, Frank Grillo, Nash Edgerton, and Mark Duplass, with Ricky Sekhon taking the role of bin Laden himself.

Bigelow is once more directing from a script by Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), with the two producing alongside the brilliant Megan Ellison (True Grit, The Master, Lawless).

Stefan has already seen the film and, like most critics, thought it was almost flawless – you can read our review here – and this looks to be one of the finest films of 2012 (albeit largely arriving in 2013).

Zero Dark Thirty is currently playing in selected US theatres, and will be opening wide in the States next Friday, 11th January. We’ve got slightly longer to wait on our shores, with its UK release date set for 25th January, but it certainly looks like it’s going to be worth the wait. For now, here’s the latest TV spot to give you an idea of what to expect.

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