The Catcher Was a Spy — Trailer

added: Wed, May 2nd '18

Paul Rudd is given a license to kill in the newly-released trailer for the WWII espionage thriller "The Catcher Was a Spy," which also stars Mark Strong, Jeff Daniels, Guy Pearce, Paul Giamatti, and Sienna Miller.

The "Ant-Man" star portrays real-life O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Services) agent Morris "Moe" Berg in the upcoming bio-pic, which recounts his incredible life story as a professional baseball player who had an Ivy League education and spoke seven languages when he was recruited by the U.S. government to serve as an undercover spy during WWII.

As we see in the trailer, Berg's mission is to travel to Europe to gather intelligence on Nazi-Germany's atomic-bomb program. Berg is also to get as close as possible to Germany's top nuclear scientist Werner Heisenberg (played by Strong). And if the opportunity presents itself, kill Heisenberg -- that is, only if Berg sees Heisenberg as an imminent threat and unwilling to defect.

72-year-old filmmaker Ben Lewin, who previously made the Sundance-winning Helen Hunt-John Hawkes true-life drama "The Sessions," directs the film from a script by "Saving Private Ryan" scribe Robert Rodat, which was based from Nicholas Dawidoff's 1994 biographical book.

Co-starring Tom Wilkinson, Giancarlo Giannini, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shea Whigham, and Connie Nielsen, "The Catcher Was a Spy," which premiered at Sundance in January, will be released in theaters and VOD on June 22nd. Watch the trailer, above.

synopsis:
This gripping, stranger-than-fiction espionage thriller brings to life the incredible true story of Moe Berg, the professional baseball player who became a World War II spy.

A Jewish, Princeton-educated, multilingual catcher for the Boston Red Sox with a closely-guarded private life, the enigmatic Berg (Paul Rudd) was already a man of mystery when, in 1944, the US government's wartime intelligence agency enlisted his services. His mission: go behind enemy lines in Europe to assassinate the Nazi's chief nuclear scientist before the Germans develop an atomic bomb. Trading in his catcher's mitt for a trench coat, Berg must rely on his formidable, steel-trap intellect in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse -- with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

directed by Ben Lewin

starring Paul Rudd, Mark Strong, Jeff Daniels, Paul Giamatti, Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Tom Wilkinson, Giancarlo Giannini, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shea Whigham, Connie Nielsen

release date June 22, 2018 (in theaters and on VOD)