Tom Hanks plays Western war vet in 'News of the World' teaser trailer

What do you get when you combine elements of The Transporter movie, the wild West, and award-winning actor Tom Hanks? Well, whatever it is, it looks like one heck of an adventure based on brief film footage recently released by Universal Pictures.

In a short teaser trailer, Universal dropped the first look for News of the World, a Western-themed film based on the 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles.

In the movie, Hanks plays the role of Captain Jefferson Kidd, a Civil War veteran turned oral storyteller who, in 1870, travels from town to town while sharing news from around the world.

The synopsis reads: Five years after the end of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks), a widower and veteran of three wars, now moves from town to town as a non-fiction storyteller, sharing the news of presidents and queens, glorious feuds, devastating catastrophes, and gripping adventures from the far reaches of the globe. In the plains of Texas, he crosses paths with Johanna (Helena Zengel), a 10-year-old taken in by the Kiowa people six years earlier and raised as one of their own. Johanna, hostile to a world she’s never experienced, is being returned to her biological aunt and uncle against her will. Kidd agrees to deliver the child where the law says she belongs. As they travel hundreds of miles into the unforgiving wilderness, the two will face tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces as they search for a place that either can call home.

Watch the first trailer here:

The film is helmed by director Paul Greengrass and is produced by Gary Goetzman, Gregory Goodman, Gail Mutrux, Steven Shareshian and Tore Schmidt.

News of the World stars Hanks, Zengel, Michael Covino, Fred Hechinger, Neil Sandilands, Thomas Francis Murphy, Mare Winningham, Elizabeth Marvel and Chukwudi Iwuji. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on Christmas Day.