#Austin Butler, Jodie Comer Find Uneasy Love in a Motorcycle Club in Jeff Nichols’ ‘The Bikeriders’ Trailer

Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer navigate the rough-and-tumble world of a 1960s motorcycle club in the first trailer for 20th Century Studios’ The Bikeriders.

The first spot for the drama feature from filmmaker Jeff Nichols was released Wednesday ahead of its Dec. 1 theatrical release. Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook and Norman Reedus round out the cast for the film that premiered last month at the Telluride Film Festival.

The Bikeriders focuses on Kathy (Comer), a member of the club called the Vandals who recounts her whirlwind marriage to impulsive biker Benny (Butler). The trailer shows the evolution of the friendship between Benny and club leader Johnny (Hardy) as the Vandals become more engaged in criminal activity.

“I want you to quit riding,” Comer says in the footage. This leads Butler to reply, “Don’t ask that.”

Later, Hardy says flatly about his friend, “If he wants to ride a bike, he’ll ride a bike.”

Director Nichols (Loving) wrote the script based on Danny Lyon’s 1968 book of the same name that chronicled the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Executive producers are Yariv Milchan, Michael Schaefer, Sam Hanson, David Kern and Fred Berger.

Following its Aug. 31 debut at Telluride, The Bikeriders will screen next month at the London Film Festival. Butler is fresh off his best actor Oscar nomination earlier this year for the title role in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.

In her review of the film for The Hollywood Reporter, Sheri Linden wrote that “what resonates beyond the brawls and blood is a profound affection for the people onscreen — those grace notes provided by a fine cast, with Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy stirring undercurrents that are particularly affecting precisely because they’re never explicitly examined or explained.”