From the ranks of the Sons of Anarchy cast, Taylor Sheridan has emerged as one of the buzziest screenwriters working today. He took Cannes by storm and scored an intelligent sleeper hit with Sicario, his south-of-the-border drug war drama. He made it to the Oscars with another yarn of crime and the solemn-faced folks working to stop it, with the timely Western standoff Hell or High Water. And now, the accomplished writer has delivered another potboiler set on the grand expanses of the American plains, with a sweetened deal: he’ll get the chance to prove himself as a filmmaker too, taking his debut directorial credit on Wind River.

Sheridan drew positive notices out of the film's Sundance premiere and wowed another round of festival goers at Cannes this past week. Now we unwashed commoners can get a peek at the film ahead of its August 4 release date with the first official trailer. Jeremy Renner stars as a local lawman and inveterate tracker who discovers the body of a murdered girl out on a barren stretch of land in a Wyoming reservation. When the feds come to town — represented here by Elizabeth Olsen in a decidedly Clarice Starling-ish role — they’ll need his familiarity with the terrain to solve the mystery. As the mismatched pair trudge deeper and deeper into this case, they discover greater violence and savagery than either had expected.

Smart of Sheridan to situate himself so squarely within his own wheelhouse on his first go behind the camera, and he couldn’t have wrangled a much better cast. (Good to see Hell or High Water standout Gil Birmingham back in the mix.) This summer’s going to be freezing.

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