Christian Bale's latest Oscar-baiting dramatic physical transformation has been unveiled in the first trailer for Vice, Adam McKay's biopic of the former US vice-president Dick Cheney.

Bale, who lost 60lb for the 2004 film The Machinist, gained 40lb (as well as a bald cap) to play George W Bush's controversial vice-president. The film charts Cheney's rise through the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George HW Bush, before apparently brokering a deal with Bush jnr to heighten the powers of the VP.

In a tweet, McKay described the film as "a snapshot into Dick Cheney's wild, quiet and shadowy power".

Bale featured in the ensemble cast for McKay's acclaimed financial-crisis comedy The Big Short. Vice reunites him with another star of that film, Steve Carell, who plays Donald Rumsfeld, alongside a cast that also includes Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney and Sam Rockwell as George W Bush.

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The film is due in US cinemas on Christmas Day and in Ireland and Britain on February 1st, 2019. – Guardian