If you weren’t already familiar with Bombshell, the upcoming film from director Jay Roach, then this teaser might be a teensy bit confusing at first watch. Even then, you might still admire it as a masterfully tense piece of marketing, and it’s hard to deny the allure of a film featuring the awesome acting triumvirate of Margot Robbie, Charlize Theron, and Nicole Kidman—and that’s before we even touch on the great supporting cast. Based on a screenplay by Charles Randolph (The Big Short), Bombshell recounts the Fox News scandal in which numerous female staffers accused Roger Ailes of sexual harassment and misconduct. (This isn’t the first project to revisit that story; Showtime recently tackled it in The Loudest Voice, starring Russell Crowe as Ailes.)
Bombshell, which arrives in theaters on December 20 via Lionsgate, stars a nearly-unrecognizable Theron as Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, Robbie as Kayla Pospisi (a fictional associate producer invented for the film), and John Lithgow as Ailes. The supporting cast includes Allison Janney as Ailes’ attorney Susan Estrich, Malcolm McDowell as Rupert Murdoch, and Connie Britton as Ailes’ wife Beth, with Jay Duplass, Kate McKinnon, and Alice Eve (and several others—seriously, this cast is stacked). You may recall that Annapurna dropped Bombshell from its distribution slate late last year; thankfully, Lionsgate swooped in to nab what could wind up being a decent awards contender.