After a striking teaser video released a couple days ago left us with more questions than answers about Nightcrawler, we are starting to get a clearer picture of what the new movie is all about thanks to its first full trailer hitting the web. In it we have the same disgruntled speech from star Jake Gyllenhaal about looking for a job, only now we have several clips from the movie to help explain the plot.

It seems that Gyllenhaal, playing an out-of-work reporter named Lou Bloom, suddenly finds success in the world of “nightcrawling”, the word used to describe the guileless freelance crime journalism that occurs in the middle of the night as a result of scanning emergency response channels.  Clearly Gyllenhaal’s Bloom gets more and more daring in his work, attracting the eye of a TV news executive played by Renee Russo (Thor).  That’s Bill Paxton (Edge of Tomorrow) who also shows up for a brief moment in the trailer, and while it’s unclear exactly what his role is, dollars to doughnuts he plays a some sort sleazy sidekick with a penchant for witty refrains.

Though he didn’t quite go to Christian Bale-like extremes, Gyllenhaal noticeably lost a lot of weight for the role. He also broke his hand during production, filming a scene that can be glimpsed in the trailer in which he smashes a mirror. It certainly seems that the actor, after taking starring roles in disappointingly bland fare like 2010’s Price of Persia and Love & Other Drugs, is making a concerted effort to find darker and more challenging material.  In recent years he has taken roles in David Ayer’s End of Watch, and a pair of dark thrillers for Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, Prisoners and Enemy.  He was recently cast in Dallas Buyer’s Club director Jean-Marc Valée’snext film, Demolition, as well as boxing drama Southpaw.

Nightcrawler was written by Dan Gilroy and he is also making his directing debut.  Among his previous writing credits are The Bourne Legacy, Real Steel, and Two for the Money.  The film will have its world premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, ahead of distributor Open Road releasing it in U.S. theaters on October 17th.

The film’s poster can be see below.