With the release of the first trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty by Columbia Pictures, we have our first look at the film that will give us the inside story behind "The Greatest Manhunt in History".

Set to be released this Christmas season, Zero Dark Thirty has been laced with controversy both due to its sensitive subject matter and the inevitably political association that the film-makers attracted.

Originally scheduled to be released in October, the release date was postponed to December 19 in a display of sensitivity by distributor Columbia Pictures in response to the criticism that the October release date of the film was meant to remind the public of President Barack Obama's involvement in authorizing the strike to support the reelection of the President. After all, it has been much reported that director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal were previous granted unprecedented access to classified information during research for the film.

Nevertheless, Bigelow has been proven an intriguing film-maker to follow in her relatively prolific cinematic career. Long before her multiple Academy Awards-winning 2009 film, The Hurt Locker (also written by Mark Boal), we were surprised by the portrayal of vampires in her 1987 film Near Dark, the cult fan-favorite surfer/action film, Point Break, and criminally understated 2005 sci-fi film, Strange Days. With the controversial nature of Zero Dark Thirty, I opine that it is safe for us to say that this is likely to be the film to watch out for this Christmas.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bigelow described the difficulty in trying to describe the film as a particular genre:

"I guess you could call it many things. It’s a thriller, it’s a drama, it’s a mystery, it’s historical, it’s one of the great stories of our time. It traces the anatomy of the decade long hunt for the world’s most wanted man… This is an amazing story about the triumph of will, dedication, and duty. [It’s] about the real life heroes in the intelligence community who worked behind the scenes day and night on what was perhaps the toughest assignment of their lives. As such, it’s a story that needs to be told respectfully."

For an interesting first look at the film, hit the jump to check out the first trailer recently released by Columbia Pictures.



The first poster of the film.

Also courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, here are some of the official images from the film.