New TV Spots for Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty – ‘The Greatest Manhunt in History’

Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty picked up an impressive five nominations yesterday with the announcement of the Oscar nominations, and with its release opening wide in the US today, those nods are sure to give a little boost to its performance at the box office this weekend.

Bigelow’s follow-up to the acclaimed The Hurt Lock will be competing for Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Chastain), Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Sound Editing, and we’re looking forward to seeing how those nominations turn out come 24^th February.

Jessica Chastain’s performance in the lead has been praised by critics for months – you can read our review here – and I can’t wait to see it for myself. The film has already taken over $5m. in its limited release in the States, and is sure to play well for Sony in the weeks to come.

“The upcoming true-life drama “Zero Dark Thirty” details the decade-long global hunt for Osama bin Laden, and in this exclusive in-theater banner, you get a satellite view of his secret compound in Pakistan. Two Black Hawk helicopters are seen approaching the fortified compound in the moments before Navy SEALs carried out the raid that lead to bin Laden’s death. The movie from the Oscar-winning writer and director of “The Hurt Locker,” will hit theaters on December 19.”

Chastain is joined by an all-star cast, headed up by Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton, Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke, James Gandolfini, Scott Adkins, Jennifer Ehle, Chris Pratt, Édgar Ramirez, Frank Grillo, Nash Edgerton, and Mark Duplass, with Ricky Sekhon taking the role of bin Laden himself.

Bigelow is once more directing from a script by Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), with the two producing alongside the brilliant Megan Ellison (True Grit, The Master, Lawless).

Zero Dark Thirty has already been playing in select theatres in the US since 19^th December, and is set to open wide across the States today, 11^th January. We’ve a little longer to wait on our shores, with its UK release date set for 25^th January, but all we’ve seen so far suggests it’s going to be well worth the wait. Here’s the latest TV spot to prove it.