Scott Cooper's last film was the Oscar-winning (for Jeff Bridges) Crazy Heart, an all-American story of a country musician fallen on hard times. Now he's staying in the heartland - or rather the rust belt - to tell the story of a family of blue-collar factory labourers fallen on similar tribulations. Here's the new poster for the film.
The story focuses on Christian Bale's Russell Baze, a factory worker with a girlfriend (Zoe Saldana) and a relatively bright future. His younger brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) is a soldier shipped back to Iraq under the stop-loss policy. But after a car accident, Russell's life is thrown off-track and he emerges from prison to find a very different life waiting to greet him. Rodney's in trouble with Woody Harrelson's Harlan DeGroat, and Russell's own plans are in tatters.
It's not the most feelgood of stories, then, but as you'd expect from the cast - which also includes Willem Dafoe and Forest Whitaker - it's a well-told one. Out Of The Furnace hits UK screens on January 31.