With such films as The Proposition and The Road under his belt, the prospect of a new film from director John Hillcoat carries with it a palpable feeling of excitement. Given that his latest, Lawless, populates a chewy, based-on-truth tale of bootlegging brothers with a frankly stellar cast, our anticipation is at an all time high. And the first trailer does not disappoint – take a look below via Yahoo.

Regular Hillcoat collaborator Nick Cave has adapted the screenplay from Matt Bondurant’s Prohibition-era novel, which follows the real-life Bondurant brothers played by Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf and Jason Clarke. This trio of charming but rough-edged siblings runs a bootlegging gang in Franklin County, Virginia. Though life seems to be good, they’re soon beset on all sides by local authorities wanting a slice of the action, while things aren't helped by LaBeouf's character starting to work for a wormy gangster (Gary Oldman). And that’s before Guy Pearce arrives as a special agent charged with bringing down their little moonshine operation.

Boasting Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Noah Taylor, and Chronicle’s Dane DeHaan in addition to the aforementioned cast, this has the ring of something special. Hardy is reliable as always, but it’ll be especially good to see Shia LaBeouf doing something other than screaming “No!” a lot and running away from giant robots, crumbling skyscrapers, or giant robots crumbling skyscrapers.

Lawless has snagged an In Competition slot at the Cannes Film Festival, which runs this year between May 16 to 27, with an August 31 release planned for the US and UK (it's just been announced). Colour us excited!