Jim Sheridan‘s long-delayed Brothers, initially regarded as a 12.4.08 release before being bumped into ’09, finally has a trailer up and running. Once upon a time the expectations for this domestic drama were very high, at least for the Sheridan fans among us. I couldn’t wait to see it, but the stalls and duck-outs have persuaded most of us that something must be wrong.

As noted several times before on HE, Brothers is a remake of Susanne Bier‘s 2004 Danish-language original about a younger “bad” brother (Jake Gyllenhaal in Sheridan’s version) stepping into the familial shoes of his older “good” brother (Tobwet Maguire) after the latter disappears during an enemy skirmish in Afghanistan.

Natalie Portman plays the wife-mother whose loyalties shift, or at least adapt to new realities. Sam Shepard plays the gruff and disapproving pater familias, the father of Gyllenhaal and Maguire. David Benioff (The Kite Runner, The 25th Hour) adapted the screenplay.