The Road trailer arrives online

The first trailer for John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is now online, and you can watch it below.

The film, which was shoved back from last year’s Oscar race because it needed more post-production time, follows an unnamed man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they travel through a ravaged America.

Civilization has fallen thanks to some unspecified apocalypse and now the world is a living hell, with packs of random thugs scavenging from other survivors.

And how does this promo – which the director has worried would be too traditional – make it look? In one phrase: utterly bleak.

But also, amazing. It appears to be one of the most faithful adaptations of a difficult book to happen along for a while and we can’t wait to see it.

Check out the trailer below (warning: don’t watch it if you’re unhappy; it won’t cheer you up at all) and let us know your thoughts...