Nearly a month ago, the trailer for the next highly anticipated film David Fincher film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button debuted before the fourth Indiana Jones movie on May 23rd. The Spanish version of the trailer was briefly available online that day. Now Fincher and Paramount Pictures have officially launched the trailer today in High Definition over at Apple.

This is as good as it gets.

My first viewing of the trailer on the big screen was a transcendent experience. Maybe greater than the one for The Dark Knight coming July 18th. Hell, it’s on par with There Will Be Blood.

The angelic and somber score comes from Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals - Aquarium sans the choir that has been used in Terrance Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978) and a few Ren and Stimpy cartoons. Except for the odd line of dialogue that bookends the trailer, the music is dominant like a silent picture. It reminds me of the eerie, dialogue-free Dark City Trailer.

Best of all, it doesn’t overstay its welcome clocking in at one minute and forty-six seconds. Too many trailers go to the trouble of cramming in every cool visual along with the final confrontation into two minutes and forty seconds. Over-eagerness does not suit a seducer.

The F. Scott Fitzgerald short story makes for a compelling hour’s read. It draws parallels to Daniel Keyes’ Flowers For Algernon. A baby is born wrinkled, decrepit and frighteningly able to talk candidly about the indignity of being given a milk bottle. As the time passes, Benjamin Button (nearly named Methuselah, referring to the son of Noah who reached the age of 969 years old) must contend with living a unique life of regressing to youth both psychically and mentally. He is always withheld from the conventional human experience, but strives for it anyways.

Within Fincher’s command after Zodiac (2007), his most successful feature, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button could become an instant classic. I hope.

The film stars Brad Pitt (12 Monkeys, 1995), Cate Blanchett (The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1999), Tilda Swinton (Young Adam, 2003), Julia Ormond (The Baby of Macon, 1993), Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line, 1998), Jason Flemyng (From Hell, 2001), and Taraji P. Henson (Hustle and Flow, 2005)

Christmas looks promising this year.

The first trailer for the Coen Brothers’ newest film Burn After Reading has hit the internet. Burn is about two gym employees who find the memoirs of an outed CIA offical, and intent to exploit their find. Burn premiered at Cannes, and is set for a September 12th release date.

Enjoy

A film adaptation of the 1922 short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

It’s a story around an 80-year-old man (Brad Pitt) who is born aging backwards, causing complications when he falls in love with a 30 year old woman (Cate Blanchett). Fincher said, “It’s dark, it’s romantic, and it also deals with mortality in a pretty unflattering way. The guy is born in 1919 - with the film itself beginning in World War I, traveling around the world and carrying on all the way through to the year 2000.”

Okay, the story-line is a bit confusing… but it’s got my attention. I’m a fan of the director and the actors. David Fincher has worked before with Brad Pitt in Fight Club, and Cate and Brad worked together in Babel. From watching Cate’s performance in Elizabeth (1 & 2) and Brad’s performance in The Assassination of Jesse James, they are both very mature actors and definitely bring any story to life with amazing emotion and reality.

This is David Fincher’s seventh film, and has a cameo by Pitt’s daughter Shiloh. The film will be released December 19, 2008.