‘Normal’ Trailer: Why Can’t You People Just Let Bob Odenkirk Rest?

There is something (ahem) distinctly abnormal afoot in the town of Normal, Minnesota. There’s the very luxe new town hall (where did these everyday folk find $16.8 million for that?). There are the kindly old townspeople who seem way to plugged into the police scanner. And the police? Why do they have such a stash of heavy-duty firepower?

These questions, and more, are on offer in the first full trailer for Ben Wheatley‘s latest, “Normal.” The biggest question of all, however: why can’t you people just let Bob Odenkirk rest? As Normal’s newest (interim!) sheriff, his Ulysses is about to get plunged into yet another energetic action outing that doesn’t give a damn about his own professional desires.

Per the film‘s official logline, this “kinetic neo-Western action film stars Odenkirk as an unassuming substitute sheriff with a troubled past who, after moving to a small, sleepy town, responds to a bank robbery and unknowingly uncovers something far more explosive. For Sheriff Ulysses (Odenkirk), his provisional posting to the quaint Midwestern American town of Normal was meant to be a welcome respite from both his marital woes and recent moral injuries in the line of duty. But when a botched bank robbery interrupts the municipality’s tranquil pace, a dark secret is inadvertently exposed, and Ulysses soon discovers that the town is anything but its namesake.”

The film also stars Henry Winkler and Lena Headey, and was written by “John Wick” screenwriter Derek Kolstad. Like Odenkirk’s recent mini-franchise “Nobody,” the film continues to make the case for Bob Odenkirk, Action Hero. (Kolstad also wrote both “Nobody” and “Nobody 2.”)

Before the film premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Odenkirk, Kolstad, and producer Marc Provissiero told IndieWire about their plans for more films like “Normal” and “Nobody.” The trio even formed an official production company — more of a “creative partnership” — dedicated to making stylish, fun, and original action movies.

“There’s a cookie cutter action type story you can tell and it will satisfy an audience, I understand that. I grasp that there’s an audience out there, and I don’t want to name names, but I don’t need to because you can conjure them up without effort,” Odenkirk told IndieWire. “There is a kind of movie that if you make it and it looks reliably satisfying, it will get its audience. But I’m always trying to find something more, find something more to the form, smuggle in something more than just the accepted values of that genre.”

Magnolia Pictures will release the film in theaters on Friday, April 17. Check out the film’s first full trailer below.