Searchlight Pictures has released a new Behemoth trailer for Tony Gilroy’s music drama, with Pedro Pascal as Alex Serian, a gifted cellist who returns to Los Angeles after 20 years on the road. The film opens in theaters on 4 December 2026. The trailer runs for just over two minutes and shows Alex at work in recording studios and in scenes with his family, as music from the film runs under the footage. Gilroy wrote and directed the film, his first directed feature since The Bourne Legacy in 2012, after his run as creator and showrunner of the Star Wars series Andor.
Behemoth trailer and the story of Alex Serian
The official synopsis, quoted by ComingSoon and other outlets, reads: “A gifted cellist returns home to Los Angeles after 20 years on the road. Music, which has been the constant, all-consuming river of his life, swells into an adventure that will change him forever.” In the Behemoth trailer, Alex begins working in Hollywood’s film scoring community while facing unfinished business from his past. The Playlist reported that the story spans roughly 25 years of Alex’s life, with music acting as the link between different periods. Pascal has described learning to play the cello convincingly as one of the most difficult challenges of his career, according to The Playlist, while Gilroy has called the project unusually personal, drawing on his own early ambitions as a musician.
The cast around Pascal includes Olivia Wilde as Alex’s ex-girlfriend Carol, Eva Victor as fellow musician Nadia, Will Arnett as Alex’s brother Andy, and Hank Azaria as his father Peter. Alexa Swinton, Kaya Ralls, Erik Griffin, JoBeth Williams and Margarita Levieva also co-star, according to The Playlist and GeekTyrant. In the footage reported by MovieWeb, Alex’s brother hosts a podcast, and the Behemoth trailer shows a tense relationship between Alex and his father. The Behemoth trailer opens, according to GeekTyrant, with Alex working on a major Hollywood production operating under the secret title Behemoth, which also gives Gilroy’s film its name. The film is rated R for language and sexual references and runs 2 hours and 4 minutes, according to Comic Basics.
Behemoth trailer and the nine composer score
One feature of the film that has drawn attention in the trailer coverage is its score. Nine composers worked on the music, under the name The Behemoth Collective. The lineup, reported by Collider and GeekTyrant, includes Michael Abels, Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Michael Giacchino, James Newton Howard, Henry Jackman, Nami Melumad, Brandon Roberts and Alan Silvestri. The composers built the various fictional scores heard through the film, which follows a cellist from a family of musicians who moves into composing music for films. Gilroy produced the film alongside Sanne Wohlenberg and John Gilroy, and Damian Garcia handled cinematography, according to GeekTyrant.
The film had its world premiere earlier in October as the Centerpiece selection of the 64th New York Film Festival, The Playlist reported. It then screened in London, according to GeekTyrant. Early reviews have been mixed but generally positive about Pascal, Comic Basics reported, and the film held an 86 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 49 reviews at the time of the trailer reports, according to MovieWeb and Collider. Pascal, Arnett and Wilde earned particular praise in the early reviews noted by Collider. A teaser trailer was released in July, MovieWeb reported, and the new Behemoth trailer gives a fuller look at Alex’s journey than that first footage did.
Behemoth trailer and the December release
Searchlight Pictures will release Behemoth in select theaters in the United States on 4 December 2026, according to GeekTyrant and ComingSoon. Comic Basics reported that the release is a limited opening on Friday 4 December, placing the film in the awards season window. The December date puts the film just over a month after the trailer release on 28 October, when Searchlight debuted the new Behemoth trailer online. The Behemoth trailer is available on the studio’s channels, with the closing line that the movie is only in theaters on 4 December.
Gilroy’s return to feature directing has drawn interest because of the gap since his last film behind the camera. He directed Michael Clayton and Duplicity before The Bourne Legacy, and he spent much of the last decade working in Star Wars, including as creator of Andor. Behemoth is a smaller and more intimate film than those projects, The Playlist reported, built around musical inheritance, family ties, longing and memory. The Behemoth trailer presents that story through studio sessions, family scenes and concert footage, with Pascal carrying the cello work at the center of the frame. Searchlight has not announced further release details beyond the 4 December date in the trailer materials reported so far.