New Mortal Engines Trailer Puts London On Wheels

Mix equal parts Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Mad Max, and you've got yourself Mortal Engines, the upcoming fantasy epic film produced by The Lord of the Rings trilogy writer-director-producer Peter Jackson. 

Universal Pictures treated the world to another look at Mortal Engines on Tuesday, releasing a new trailer for the film based on British author Philip Reeves' novel series of the same name. 

Centered on Robert Sheehan's Tom Natsworthy, a twenty-something who has never seen the world outside his traveling city, the film takes place thousands of years after civilization was obliterated. Now, nations don't exist and massive moving metropolises destroy smaller towns to obtain their resources.

When Tom — who comes from a Lower Tier of London, which has become an enormous "traction" city — spots a dangerous fugitive named Hester Shaw (played by Hera Hilmar) trying to kill Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving), the man she blames for her mother's death, both Tom and Hester are thrown out of London and must fight to survive the city-eat-city war that rages around them. Their unlikely alliance and want to change the course of history brings them to Anna Fang (Jihae), a pilot and the leader of the Anti-Traction League, a resistance group that works against the moving cities to stop them from devouring Earth's natural materials. 

Watch the full trailer above. 

Christian Rivers, a longtime friend and collaborator of Peter Jackson's, is on board as director of Mortal Engines. The film also stars Ronan Raftery (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as Bevis Pod, Leila George (Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?) as Katherine Valentine, Patrick Malahide (Game of Thrones) as Magnus Crome, and Stephen Lang (Avatar) as Shrike. Topping off the cast are Colin Salmon as Chudleigh Pomeroy, Regé-Jean Page as Captain Khora, Leifur Sigurdarson as Nils Lindstrom, Mark Hadlow as Orme Wreyland, Sophie Cox as Clytie Potts, Aaron Jackson as Gench, Stephen Ure as Pewsey, Kee Chan as Governor Kwan, and Mark Mitchinson as Vambrace.

Mortal Engines is set for a December 14 debut.