Trailer: Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike in BEIRUT

Bleecker Street has released the first trailer for Beirut, a movie set in one of my favorite spy locations that we first heard about in 2015 under the better title of High Wire Act. No matter what they're calling it, this spy movie has a rich pedigree. It's written by Bourne franchise veteran Tony Gilroy, and directed by the always interesting indie auteur Brad Anderson (The Machinist, Transsiberian). And it stars the very appealing duo of Jon Hamm (Keeping Up With the Joneses) and Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day), along with Shea Whigham (Agent Carter) and Dean Norris (Death Wish). Hamm plays a former American diplomat who fled his old Lebanon stomping ground in 1972 after a tragic incident at his home. A decade later, when he's a washed-up drunk working in the private sector, he is called back to war-torn Beirut by CIA operative Pike to negotiate for the life of a friend he left behind.

Beirut opens April 13. Before that, it premieres at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, January 22.

Tradecraft: Bleecker Street Walks a High Wire With Jon Hamm

Spy fans have been eagerly anticipating the Brad Anderson-directed, Tony Gilroy-penned High Wire Act ever since Anderson (claimed in May 2015 that veteran Bourne series scripter Gilroy "may have been channeling John le Carré when he wrote this." And now the 1980s Beirut-set spy movie starring Jon Hamm (Keeping Up With the Joneses) and Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day) at last has a U.S. distributor! Deadline reports that Bleecker Street will release the picture here. No date has been set yet. According to the trade, Hamm plays a U.S. diplomat who, having fled Lebanon after the death of his wife in the Seventies, is recruited by CIA agents PIke and Dean Norris (The Book of Henry) to go back a decade later for a mission only he can accomplish. The script is said to be more in the vein of Gilroy's smart, adult thrillers like Michael Clayton and Nightcrawler than his Bourne movies. Anderson's directing credits include Session 9 and The Machinist.