Watch: Nicolas Cage Unravels After The BP Oil Spill In First Trailer For 'The Runner'

The RunnerNicolas Cage has an extensive filmography: if you name it, he’s probably done it (how many Hollywood figures can you think of that would star in the Christian themed apocalypse movie "Left Behind"?). The actor’s latest left turn is into the realm of ripped-from-headlines drama… sort of.

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In "The Runner," set against the aftermath of the 2010 BP oil spill, The Cage plays Colin Price, an idealistic but flawed New Orleans congressman who is forced to confront his dysfunctional life after his career is destroyed in a sex scandal. Connie Nielsen plays Deborah, Colin’s wife and a high-powered attorney with political ambitions of her own, and Peter Fonda plays Colin’s father, also a politician. "Mad Men" star Bryan Batt takes the role of Mark Lavin, a Wall Street type who rolls with big oil companies and wants the controversy around the spill to disappear, while Wendell Pierce is Price’s Chief of Staff who witness the world coming down around his boss.

"The Runner" opens on August 7th. Watch the trailer below.

The Runner, posterThe Runner, poster