Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Universal Pictures is giving a glimpse of the new film News of the World.
The studio shared a trailer for the Western drama Thursday featuring Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a Civil War veteran turned news reader, or frontier journalist.
The preview follows Captain Kidd (Hanks) as he attempts to deliver Johanna (Helena Zengel), a young girl taken by the Kiowa people years ago, to her aunt and uncle. The pair must make a perilous journey through Texas.
"As they travel hundreds of miles into the unforgiving wilderness, the two will face tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces as they search for a place that either can call home," an official synopsis reads.
News of the World is based on the Paulette Jiles novel of the same name. Paul Greengrass co-wrote the script with Luke Davies and directed the film. Greengrass previously directed Hanks in Captain Phillips (2013).
In an interview with Vanity Fair this month, Greengrass described Hank's character as "a thread who connects one community to another." Greengrass said the conflicts in the film reflect modern society.
"Even though it's set [in 1870], it's a film about our times," he said. "Neighbors and families and communities were in stark and often violent conflict with each other, and Americans needed to decide who they were as Americans."
News of the World opens in theaters Dec. 25.
