The ever-versatile Christian Bale will next star as an “embittered and battle-hardened US Cavalry officer” in Scott Cooper’s forthcoming Western, Hostiles. The film premiered over the weekend at the Telluride Film Festival to a strong reception, with The Hollywood Reporter pegging Bale as a lock for a Best Actor Oscar nominee. An intense bidding war is now underway to acquire the distribution rights for release before year’s end. However, fans get an early peak via the newly revealed trailer streaming up above.

In the film, Bale is ordered to chaperone his longtime rival, Cheyenne war chief named Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family back to their tribal lands in Montana. According to the provided synopsis, Bale’s character “is a racist, a man who harbours a deep hatred towards the former prisoners now placed in his care. As the challenges mount, Blocker is forced to confront his own bigotry while carrying out his orders.”

Hostiles also stars Rosamund Pike, Jesse Plemons, Ben Foster, and Timothée Chalamet.

Read the full synopsis below.

“Fresh from 2015’s gangster film Black Mass, Scott Cooper has turned to another venerable American genre, the western, for Hostiles, the raw and compelling tale of an embittered and battle-hardened US Cavalry officer ordered to accompany a Cheyenne war chief and his family back to their tribal lands in Montana. The flinty-eyed Captain Blocker (Christian Bale) has seen more than his fair share of violence and bloodletting on the frontier, but this mission, which he is forced to accept, is a particularly bitter pill to swallow: Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) has been his mortal enemy for years due to a conflict that killed many of Blocker’s friends. The Chief has also lost friends in the conflict.

Setting out through dangerous territory, much of it inhabited by hostile tribes, the small band of soldiers and Cheyenne navigate the beautiful prairies and wilds of the west, while facing a series of challenges. Blocker — much like John Wayne’s character in the John Ford classic The Searchers — is a racist, a man who harbours a deep hatred towards the former prisoners now placed in his care. As the challenges mount, Blocker is forced to confront his own bigotry while carrying out his orders. To complicate matters, the ragged party is joined by a stricken widow (Rosamund Pike) who has just seen her family massacred in a raid.”