This first trailer for Danny Boyle's TRANCE will make you do anything it wants

Now that Oscar winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Trainspotting) is done trying to convince the world that being really, really British is an Olympic sport, he’s back behind the cameras, doing what he does best. And while his latest film, Trance, has a lot to do with hypnotism, I have a feeling that you won’t be getting sleepy, soooooo sleeeeeepyyyyyy.

“Trance,” directed by Oscar®-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “127 Hours”) and co-written by Oscar®-nominated long term collaborator John Hodge (“Shallow Grave,” “Trainspotting”) is a seductive and enigmatic thriller starring James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel and Rosario Dawson.

Fine art auctioneer Simon (McAvoy), in league with a gang led by underworld boss Franck (Cassel), plots the audacious theft of a masterpiece by Goya from a major public auction. When Simon double-crosses the gang during the robbery, Franck retaliates violently and knocks him unconscious.

In the aftermath of the heist, Simon sticks stubbornly – and perhaps shrewdly – to his claim that the violent trauma has left him with no memory of where he stashed the artwork.

Unable to coerce the painting’s location from Simon, Franck and his associates reluctantly join forces with a charismatic hypnotherapist (Dawson) in a bid to get him to talk. But as they journey deeper into Simon’s jumbled psyche the boundaries between reality and hypnotic suggestion begin to blur and the stakes rise faster and far more dangerously than any of the players could have anticipated.

Oh Danny Boyle, the pipes, the pipes are calling… I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

Back on topic though, that is looking rather good, with Boyle’s stylized flair for cinematography clearly visible. I’ve been a fan of Vincent Cassel ever since I saw him breakdancing in Ocean’s Thirteen and James McAvoy has done very little wrong thus far in his career, so I doubt he’d start now. Especially when the film is written by Boyle and his Trainspotting and Shallow Grave screenwriting collaborator John Hodge. The last time they worked together, they introduced us to Ewan McGregor’s penis and the world’s crappiest breakfast, so I’m guessing some more shocks are on the way here.

The film has yet to receive an official release date though, and currently all we know is that will possibly be hypnotizing audiences some time in March 2013.

Last Updated: January 15, 2013