'Stillwater' Trailer: Matt Damon Tries To Exonerate His Daughter In Tom McCarthy's New Thriller

Matt Damon is unrecognizable in his new movie. Just kidding, he looks like Matt Damon with a beard and a strong Southern drawl, which certainly makes him stick out when wandering the streets of Marseille, France. But Damon is there for a reason, and it's to exonerate his daughter (Abigail Breslin) who is imprisoned for a murder she claims she didn't commit. Watch the Stillwater trailer below.

Matt Damon teams up with Tom McCarthy for the dramatic thriller Stillwater, a film that feels like a thinly veiled take on the Amanda Knox story. Only Amanda Knox didn't have Matt Damon as a dad knocking down doors and doing everything he can to free his daughter from prison. In Stillwater, Damon plays against type as an oil rig "roughneck" from Oklahoma who travels to Marseilles to try to exonerate his daughter. But Damon's character is out of his depth — both in the complicated French legal system and in the strange city of Marseilles, which for some reason is depicted like a third-world country in this trailer.

But despite some of the dicey choices in this film, there's still cause for excitement: this is the first dramatic feature from McCarthy since the filmmaker won a couple Oscars (for Best Screenplay and Best Picture) for the acclaimed 2015 journalism drama Spotlight. McCarthy has been dabbling in family films in the years since, writing for Christopher Robin, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, and writing and directing the Disney family film Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.

Starring opposite Damon are Abigail Breslin and Camille Cottin. McCarthy co-wrote the Stillwater screenplay with Marcus Hinchey, Thomas Bidegain, and Noé Debré. The director is also a producer on the project along with Steve Golin, Jonathan King, and Liza Chasin. The movie was originally scheduled for release last fall, but the pandemic caused the movie to be delayed until this summer.

Here is the synopsis for Stillwater:

A dramatic thriller directed by Academy Award® winner Tom McCarthy and starring Matt Damon, Stillwater follows an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.

Focus Features has set Stillwater for theatrical release on July 30, 2021.