After the rotoscoped animation antics of **A Scanner Darkly **and a trip into film history with Me And Orson Welles, director Richard Linklater decided to recruit a couple of old pals (Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey) and shoot something a little smaller in Texas. The result is Bernie, an odd story of true crime and a cranky old widow. Check out the trailer below.
Bernie follows the misadventures of the titular character, a mortician (Black) who is known around the small, friendly town of Carthage as a community leader.
But people wonder whether he’s been sniffing the formaldehyde a little too deeply when he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine), a recently widowed woman with all the charm of a cobra. Still, the two seem to get along famously, jetting off on exotic holidays and spending lots of time together.
Then comes another twist: Marjorie ends up dead, and while everyone in town can believe someone would kill her, no one can quite convince themselves that Bernie would be guilty. Enter the flamboyant local District Attorney, Danny Buck Davidson (McConaughey), who makes it his mission to find out the truth.
**Bernie **will arrive in the US on April 27, but there’s no word on a UK release date yet.