Dev Patel nails an Australian accent in the first look at a new Australian film that has high hopes of international success.
The British star of Slumdog Millionaire and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel plays Saroo Brierley, an Indian-Australian businessman who undertakes an epic quest to track down his birth mother and brother in Calcutta in the drama Lion.
He heads a strong cast that includes Rooney Mara as his girlfriend, and Nicole Kidman and David Wenham as his adoptive parents.
Sunny Pawar plays the young Saroo in India.
Directed by Garth Davis (Top of the Lake) and based on Brierley's 2013 memoir A Long Way Home, Lion about to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival but has already attracted heavyweight attention.
Hollywood distributor Harvey Weinstein has bought worldwide rights outside Australia and New Zealand and lined it up for November release in the US for a run at the Hollywood awards season.
Five years ago, he teamed up with Emile Sherman, one of Lion's Australian producers, for Oscars success with The King's Speech.
The just-released trailer for Lion suggests it will be an emotional experience.
Saroo is five when his brother tells him to wait by a railway yard one night. Falling asleep in a carriage, he is carried away from home in a train.
When he meets a group of Indians aged 25 after growing up in Australia, Saroo realises he has to track down his mother.
"How long were you on the train?," asks a friend. "Couple of days," says Brierley.
With scraps of information and research on Google Earth, he sets out to reconnect with his family.
After debuting in Toronto on September 10, Lion opens in Australia on January 19.
