If it weren’t for the fact that writer/director Martin McDonagh is every bit as handsome as his favorite leading man, you’d think he was going down the Woody Allen vanity route, casting Colin Farrell as his obvious surrogate—a screenwriter named Marty M—in his second feature film, Seven Psychopaths. Fellow Irishman Farrell was also the star of McDonagh’s 2008 sleeper hit In Bruges, which also wove its story around a band of incompetent low-level criminals who accidentally get into the crosshairs of a big time criminal sociopath, played very winningly in that first film by a rewardingly cast-against-type Hugh Grant.

The tone of Psychopaths feels very much the same as Bruges in that Farrell again plays a likable fuck-up (this time an alcoholic screenwriter who is finding it hard to produce a follow-up to his first success) whose loser friend Billy (Sam Rockwell, playing very much TO type here) makes his living through a sloppy dog kidnapping operation that he runs with his mysterious elderly pal Hans (Christopher Walken). Unfortunately, Billy nabs a cute little Shih Tzu who happens to be the darling of his owner, mafia overlord Charlie Costello (Woody Harrelson), and thus begins the chase. A shaggy dog story, indeed.

If you are one of the people who have not been exposed to the splendor that is In Bruges you really ought to do yourself a favor and seek it out post-haste. It has an energy about it that is hard to describe, and until you have seen it you really wont get as excited about Seven Psychopaths as you should be.

Director Martin McDonagh as teamed once again with Collin Ferrell for his next feature, and while the standard trailer does show promise, it is the red band trailer that really cements this as a must see. For those of you new to this project, here is the synopsis:

Written and Directed by Oscar-winner Martin McDonagh , the comedy “Seven Psychopaths” follows a struggling screenwriter (Colin Farrell) who inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends (Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell) kidnap a gangster’s (Woody Harrelson) beloved Shih Tzu.

Everything about the film feels right, from the paring of Farrell with Walken & Rockwell, to Tom Waits with a fluffy white bunny rabbit. Seven Psychopaths just might be a worthwhile successor to one of the surprise best films of 2008.

Check out the full trailer after the jump.