Exclusive 'Black Mass' Trailer Commentary: Director Breaks Down Depp's Whitey Bulger Film

For those not fully versed in Whitey Bulger’s brutality, Black Mass, starring a transformed Johnny Depp, promises to be a disturbing eye-opener about the notorious gangster.

Yahoo Movies has the new trailer (above) with exclusive commentary from director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart). He explains how Bulger ran “roughshod over the city of Boston” for years with the help of his connection to the local FBI bureau. One foreboding moment, Cooper points out: When Bulger (Depp) clinks glasses with FBI Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), a doomed toast signifying a deal that would eventually land them both in jail.

The trailer starts out with Bulger’s mobster sidekick Kevin Weeks (an aged Jesse Plemons) under interrogation by the DEA. It’s the beginning of the decades-long effort to bring Bulger to justice, a painstaking process that deeply frustrated the families and friends of the mobster’s many victims.

We also get a glimpse of Benedict Cumberbatch as Bulger’s polar-opposite brother: a powerful politician and a seemingly upstanding citizen. Kevin Bacon, Corey Stoll, Dakota Johnson, and Peter Sarsgaard round out the all-star ensemble.

The story, filled with unbelievable, gut-wrenching twists and a mountain of murder and deceit, should prove to moviegoers everywhere starting Sept. 18 that truth is stranger than fiction.

Watch the new trailer for ‘Black Mass’ (without director commentary):