The brilliant first clips for Oren Moverman’s return to the director’s chair in Rampart surfaced back in September, giving us a great look at the upcoming film in which Moverman collaborates once more with Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster, following their Oscar-nominated work on 2009’s The Messenger.

We’ve now got a great first poster for the film to share with you, courtesy of IMP Awards, with the focus directly thrust upon Woody Harrelson, just as it is in the film.

“The last of the renegade cops, LAPD officer Dave Brown (Harrelson) is caught on tape “doing the people’s dirty work” and finds himself at the center of a vicious scandal. The days of being above the law are over. Now a poster boy for police corruption, Dave learns he’s been targeted by cop killers looking for revenge. Nothing is what it seems as Dave descends into the L.A. underworld and exacts his own brand of justice.”

I got to see Rampart at the London Film Festival last month, and it was utterly awesome. (You can read my five-star review of the film here.) Moverman shows his adept capabilities as a director, moving on to tackle something new in his follow-up to The Messenger, in an incredibly impressive second feature film behind the camera.

Harrelson has a terrific supporting cast behind him, including the likes of Ben Foster, Ned Beatty, Ice Cube, Anne Heche, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright, Cynthia Nixon, and Steve Buscemi, and they all enhance what is very much the focus on Harrelson’s Dave Brown in the film. His performance is remarkable, the best I’ve ever seen him give, and it thoroughly deserves the push that Millennium Entertainment are giving the film in the run-up to the Oscars. Moverman and co-writer James Ellroy (author of L.A. Confidential and heralded as one of America’s finest crime writers) came up with a brilliant script, and Moverman did an immense job with the cast and crew of bringing it alive.

Rampart is yet to secure a UK release date, but I’m really hoping that it will be out early next year, because I can’t wait to see it again. You can see from the poster that Harrelson’s dental work has been altered, which is visually ever evident throughout the film, strengthening the impression we get of him as a man who’s had his fair share of brawls. And the shot bathes him in sunlight, directly contrasting the corruption he is immersed in, wearing those iconic shades that don’t even give you a glimpse of his eyes.

When it does come out, I cannot recommend enough how much you should go see it. Without further ado, here’s the great first poster of the film to enjoy. As usual, click to enlarge.