Paul Rudd in Trailer for Baseball Player Spy Film 'The Catcher Was a Spy'

"You can't allow yourself to be captured." IFC Films has debuted an official trailer for an indie true story film titled The Catcher Was a Spy, the latest from director Ben Lewin (The Sessions, Please Stand By). This first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, but the reviews were bad. The Catcher Was a Spy tells the story of Morris "Moe" Berg, played by Paul Rudd, the Major League Baseball player, Ivy League graduate, attorney and top-secret spy who helped the US defeat Nazi Germany in the race to build the atomic bomb. That's quite a pitch, but it doesn't seem this will live up to that hype. The impressive cast includes Jeff Daniels, Mark Strong, Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Paul Giamatti, and Hiroyuki Sanada. Featuring a score by Howard Shore (which might be the most exciting part?). I'm always curious about WWII films, and this has my attention. It looks better than what I heard at Sundance, at least. Enjoy.

Here's the first official trailer for Ben Lewin's The Catcher Was a Spy, direct from YouTube:

With 15 seasons of Major League Baseball under his belt, Moe Berg walks away from his catcher's career and the love of his life to dedicate his supreme intellect, linguistic skills and athletic prowess to the US's wartime efforts. After excelling at the rigorous training mandatory for intelligence officers in America's pre-CIA agency, Moe convinces O.S.S. Chief Bill Donovan (Jeff Daniels) that his unique capabilities will serve the nation singularly well in espionage matters abroad. Soon Donovan tasks Moe with a deadly overseas mission: to head to war-torn Europe and infiltrate the inner sanctum of the Nazi atomic program's gifted lead physicist, Werner Heisenberg (Mark Strong). Backed by U.S. military specialist Robert Furman (Guy Pearce) and renowned Dutch-American physicist Samuel Goudsmit (Paul Giamatti), Moe traverses the embattled villages of Italy and the upper echelons of Swiss academia on the hunt for the elusive Heisenberg. But once Moe ascertains exactly how close Heisenberg is to building an atomic bomb for the Nazi enemy, he is to make a life-or-death decision that will impact the very future of humanity. The Catcher Was a Spy is directed by Polish-American filmmaker Ben Lewin, of the films Georgia, Paperback Romance, The Sessions, and Please Stand By previously. The script is written by Robert Rodat, adapted from Nicholas Dawidoff's book. This first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year. IFC will release Lewin's The Catcher Was a Spy in select theaters starting on June 22nd this summer. First impression?