Michael Sheen is playing everybody from the ex-British Prime Minister to David Frost and now the famous football manager Brian Clough in a film called The Damned United which chronicles the forty-four days that Clough spent managing Leeds United after his successful run as the manager of Derby.

The film also stars Jim Broadbent as the chairman of Derby, Timothy Spall as Clough's long time assistant and Colm Meaney as the manager at Leeds that Clough replaces, and the trailer looks pretty damn good.

Michael Sheen never fails to surprise me, and once again he does with trailer for The Damned United. Although the main leads are all looking good and according to the trailer give strong performances, it's Sheen that stands out once again.

I'm amazed at how he can turn from film to film delivering a believable and real character each time, when so many actors are being themselves acting out a character, Sheen seems to encompass them and you don't see him so much as the person he's playing. That, to me, is the sign of an excellent actor, and Sheen just keeps going from strength to strength on that score.

Anyway, here's the trailer through Empire for The Damned United.

Surprisingly Peter Morgan wrote the script for this film, adapted from the David Peace novel. Morgan has written a number of Michael Sheen starring films, including The Queen and Frost/Nixon (Filmstalker review), and interestingly Peace wrote the novels behind the upcoming Yorkshire Ripper trilogy (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com).