Warner Bros has released the first trailer for American Sniper starring Bradley Cooper and directed by Clint Eastwood. Cooper portrays the late Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL sharpshooter with the most confirmed kills. Sienna Miller, Jake McDorman, Luke Grimes, Navid Negahban, and Keir O’Donnell round out the cast. The film is based on Kyle’s autobiography about his tours in Iraq.
The trailer shows a convoy passing through an Iraqi neighborhood. Kyle must make high pressure decisions to determine if onlooking locals are threats or innocent bystanders. His accuracy and quick decision making saves countless lives and attracts unwanted attention from armed insurgents. While fighting the war abroad, Kyle must also be a husband and father to his family back home.
Eastwood’s last Oscar-winning film was 2007’s Letters From Iwo Jima, a war film about World War II. American Sniper‘s Christmas Day release will have it front and center in voter’s minds come award season this year. The Academy has already recognized Katherine Bigelow’s one-two punch of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty but mostly overlooked last year’s Lone Survivor.