'Rush' Trailer: Chris Hemsworth And Daniel Brühl Court Death For Ron Howard

The Ron Howard project we've covered most extensively in this space is probably the fourth season of Arrested Development, but we're also pretty pumped for his other big release of 2013, the Formula One racing drama Rush.

Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl play James Hunt and Niki Lauda, two real-life racing rivals that spent the '70s neck-in-neck with one another. Their intense competition only intensified in 1976 after the latter suffered a horrific crash that put him in a coma, only to return to the track weeks later. Watch the first trailer after the jump.

In case the three separate mentions in the trailer weren't enough to tip you off, death is a prominent theme in the movie. It's a significant part of the sport, to be sure, but Howard's decision to lean on it so heavily is an interesting one. Hopefully that'll give it a fresh twist on the standard sports movie formula.

Rush speeds into theaters September 20.

Two-time Academy Award® winner Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon), teams once again with fellow two-time Academy Award® nominee, writer Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen), on Rush, a spectacular big-screen re-creation of the merciless 1970s rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda.

The epic action-drama stars Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers) as the charismatic Englishman James Hunt and Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds) as the disciplined Austrian perfectionist Niki Lauda, whose clashes on the Grand Prix racetrack epitomized the contrast between these two extraordinary characters, a distinction reflected in their private lives.

Set against the sexy and glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing, Rush portrays the exhilarating true story of two of the greatest rivals the world has ever witnessed—handsome English playboy Hunt and his methodical, brilliant opponent, Lauda. Taking us into their personal lives on and off the track, Rush follows the two drivers as they push themselves to the breaking point of physical and psychological endurance, where there is no shortcut to victory and no margin for error. If you make one mistake, you die.