Screenwriter Dan Gilroy—best known for co-writing Tarsem Singh’s The Fall and his older brother Tony Gilroy’s The Bourne Legacy—makes his directorial debut with Nightcrawler.
This simple, effective first trailer—crisply cut to CSS’s “Faith In Love”—is mostly a showcase for Jake Gyllenhaal’s lead performance and the camerawork of longtime Paul Thomas Anderson cinematographer Robert Elswit. The vibe is “paparazzo Taxi Driver,” with Gyllenhaal’s voice-over delivering motivational catchphrases about working your way to the top placed over images of his character, a freelance crime reporter, skulking around nighttime LA and tampering with crime scenes.
Nightcrawler is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and will open in theaters on October 17.