HanWay Films has released the official international movie trailer for the dark dystopian fantasy film Franklyn on IGN. The first feature film by writer/director Gerald McMorrow, Franklyn is a “split narrative set simultaneously in contemporary London and in a future metropolis ruled by religious fervor.” Sounds pretty crazy right? Well it gets even weirder. “It’s the story of four lost souls, divided by two parallel worlds, on course for an explosive collision when a single bullet will decide all their fates.” Trailer after the jump.

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Ryan Phillippe plays a masked vigilante detective named Preest, who is searching for his nemesis on the streets of Meanwhile City, a monolithic fantasy metropolis ruthlessly governed by faith and religious fervor. Bernhard Hill plays Esser, a broken man who is searching for his wayward son amongst the rough streets of London’s homeless. Sam Riley plays a heartbroken guy named Milo, who is desperately trying to find a way back to “the purity of first love.” And Eva Green plays an art student named Emilia whose suicidal artwork is “becoming increasingly more complex and deadly.”

EyeForFilm saw the film at the London Film Festival and calls the movie “a breath of fresh air for British cinema” and “the most impressive, daring feature from a first-time writer/director I’ve seen in some time”. ScreenDaily praised the film’s cinematography but was ultimately unsatisfied, but admits that it will “be remembered and marks McMorrow as a name to watch.”

The futuristic yet retro-Victorian Gothic London city looks like something out of a much bigger film. The concept is extremely unique, it strikes me in the same way as when I first saw the trailer for Dark City. As always, tell me what you think of the trailer in the comments below.

You can watch the trailer in higher resolution on IGN. The film hits theaters in the UK on February 20th 2009. No word on a domestic release yet.