A new provocative action thriller is coming to town.

Set to release in theaters on May 23, Dead Man Down is perfectly set at a time when action thrillers are abounding in the movie industry.

The upcoming film is shot by acclaimed Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev, director of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The film stars Colin Farrell, a rising gangland player blackmailed into murdering his boss, and Noomi Rapace, a mysterious yet deceiving woman-child who lives in the apartment across from Colin.

The movie is set in the violent and unforgiving criminal underworld of New York City. Farrell and Rapace play two strangers whose mutual obsession for revenge on local crime lord Alphonse Hoyt, played by Terrence Howard, draw them together and trigger an escalating trail of mayhem. With both protagonists absorbed on avenging their past, they synchronize a brutal and liberating plan that could change their worlds forever.

So will this film be at par with the success of Oplev's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

Based on the trailer, the film looks heavy enough on the explosions and usual action scenes, with the filmography done by Neal H. Moritz of The Fast and the Furious series, Ori Marmur of Green Hornet, and Stuart Ford of Safe and Dredd 3D.

The film's budget is reportedly small at around $30 million, yet it appears to be following Dredd's footsteps with the explosions and banging action.

Dead Man Down certainly looks more refined and photographic than Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, with its brooding and dark atmosphere. There are elaborate visuals in the trailer to get the audience's attention, even amidst the chaos and violence.

Moreover, there seems to be some political overtones in the scripting of the film and casting of foreigners Farrell and Rapace, as immigrants caught up in the tangled web of American death and destruction.

All in all, Dead Man Down is worth checking out if you are into that violent-crime-revenge-thriller kind of films. Watch the trailer below.

New York