Amazon unveiled the trailer for Goliath at the Television Critics Association press tour Sunday, and it looks … kind of great! The show, from lawyers-turned–television producers David E. Kelley and Jonathan Shapiro, was called Trial back when Kevin Costner was circling the lead role. At the time, it sounded like a courtroom drama, but the trailer, a series of nasty jolts punctuated by what seems to be a dog clicker, looks more like Body Heat. (In fact, the match-strike rhythm of the Body Heat trailer seems like a clear inspiration.) That film starred William Hurt, and Amazon’s got him too, this time playing the villain instead of the hero.
In fact, the cast couldn’t be better pedigreed: Billy Bob Thornton is preternaturally talented at playing alcoholic washouts and noir heroes, so the alcoholic washout at the center of Goliath is a natural fit. Hurt, in addition to Body Heat’s noir vibes, did an extraordinary job playing an eccentric villain in A History of Violence, a film in which Maria Bello also excelled. “Take well-known actors who’ve already sort of done this thing and have them do it again” may not be a groundbreaking casting strategy, but if Thornton, Bello, and Hurt can’t rescue small-town noir from True Detective’s clutches, no one can. Goliath arrives Oct. 14.
