The newly minted trailer for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty starring Ben Stiller was recently released and looks, if nothing else, intriguing. The flick, due out on Christmas Day of this year, is based on the 1939 short story by James Thurber of the same name about a man named Walter Mitty who retreats from his monotonous day-to-day in favor of a more vivacious world based solely on his daydreams.

Starring and directed by Stiller (who also directed smash hit comedies Tropic Thunder, Zoolander, and The Cable Guy), the film is actually the second screen adaptation after the 1947 rendition. Co-starring Academy Award winners Sean Penn and Shirley MacLaine as well as Academy Award nominee Kristen Wigg and funny people Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, and Patton Oswalt, the film at first glance appears to be an optimistic blend of imagination, adventure, revelation, and comic relief.

Watch the trailer for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty here:

According to movie aggregator site IMDB, this particular Stiller-driven version is about “A timid magazine photo manager who lives life vicariously through daydreams embarks on a true-life adventure when a negative goes missing.”

Virtually the entire core cast has a proven track record of exhibiting a range of acting chops even the crčme de la crčme of Hollywood can be envious of, so I have high hopes for this movie. While Stiller hasn’t been quite on his acting A-game with recent flops like The Watch, Tower Heist, and pretty much all of the Meet The Parents spinoffs (original excluded, obviously) his stints on the faux-reality show Burning Love are priceless. And even better, essentially all of the feature films he’s helmed have blockbuster hits or gathered cult followings.

Take a look at the trailer above and let us know what you think of the upcoming film based on the initial trailer. Will you be willing to see it in theaters? Is it more of a wait-until-it’s-free-on-HBO kind of flick? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.