The first trailer for Richard Kelly’s new film The Box has appeared, and it appropriately tries to push a few buttons. The film stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple with an increasingly desperate need for money. A box mysteriously appears on their doorstep, followed by Frank Langella, who presents an offer: push the button on the box and someone unknown to them will die, and they’ll be given a payment of one million dollars. The story is based off Richard Matheson’s short story Button, Button. See the trailer after the jump.

The film is a period piece, set in 1976, but the economic woes facing the characters make it fortuitously appropriate to now. Shot by Steven Poster, the trailer suggests that the film looks great, with some lush photography and art direction set against locations in and around Boston, MA. The accent of Cameron Diaz may be difficult to take, but let’s be patient and see what the film brings.

This is Kelly’s return to directing after the rather disastrous Southland Tales. In contrast to the dramatic excess of that film, which I recommend checking out as one of the more spectacular failures made by any young director, this film looks tight and controlled. The trailer makes it out to be perhaps more of an outright thriller than it really is, but all the elements for a suspenseful moral horror story seem to be in place.

[via MovieFone]