The Mississippi, a richly cinematic backdrop in films from Show Boat to Deliverance, again plays Best Supporting River in Mud, an Arkansas-set drama starring Matthew McConaughey. Feast your eyes on its new poster below.
**Mud **sees McConaughey playing the title character, a grizzled fugitive whose riverside hideout is stumbled upon by two kids called Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland). All three feature prominently on the promo, but who are the other figures? Glad you asked. There's Mud's childhood flame Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), for whom he still holds a candle, and the great Sam Shepard as the boys' concerned neighbour, Tom Blankenship.
Each reacts very differently to McConaughey's other-worldly fugitive, with the youngsters left to puzzle out whether the mysterious figure represents good or evil.
Director Jeff Nichols, the man behind the much-admired Take Shelter, has taken inspiration from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn for the tale - right down to that nod to Blankenship, the man who informed the original Huck Finn character. Catch his film in the UK from May 10.