First trailer for Birdman featuring Michael Keaton as washed-up actor released

The trailer for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film Birdman starring Michael Keaton has been released, giving fans an insight into the director’s first comic film.

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Keaton, who is best known for starring as Batman in the early Nineties, plays a washed-up actor who once portrayed an iconic superhero in the self-reflexive film.

In the movie, Keaton's character Riggan is forced to overcome his ego and family troubles as he takes part in a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim his past glory.

The film marks a more comic turn for the Mexican director, who is better known for his harder-hitting films Babel (2006) and Biutiful (2010).

Set to slowed-down version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”, the stylised trailer opens with Keaton walking unhappily backstage at his Broadway play with a voiceover saying: “How did we end up here, in this dump? You were a movie star, remember?”

The trailer then jumps to Keaton’s character remembering his time playing Birdman, with CGI fire bursting out of a New York pavement.

The teaser ends with Keaton going onto the Broadway stage in front of a large audience as the narrator says: “You’re a Birdman. Let’s go back one more time and show them what we’re capable of.”

Birdman is due to be released in the UK on 2 January 2015 in time for the awards season.