Actor Ewan McGregor has certainly been keeping busy lately, filming his long-awaited sequel Trainspotting 2 and also signing on for his first major American TV role, starring in Season 3 of FX's Fargo. The actor is also getting ready to debut his directorial debut American Pastoral, with the first trailer arriving over the weekend. The first-time filmmaker also stars in this drama set during the Vietnam War.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Phillip Roth novel, American Pastoral follows a family whose seemingly idyllic existence is shattered by the social and political turmoil of the 1960s. Ewan McGregor (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Beginners) makes his directorial debut and stars as Seymour "Swede" Levov, a once legendary high school athlete who is now a successful businessman married to Dawn, a former beauty queen. But turmoil brews beneath the polished veneer of Swede's life. When his beloved teenage daughter, Merry, disappears after being accused of committing a violent act, Swede dedicates himself to finding her and reuniting his family.

What he discovers shakes him to the core, forcing him to look beneath the surface and confront the chaos that is shaping the world around him. Before Ewan McGregor came aboard to direct, another actor/filmmaker was set to take the helm, Fisher Stevens, but he eventually parted ways with the project. We'll have to wait and see if Ewan McGregor's take on this beloved novel will lure in audiences to theaters this fall.

American Pastoral also stars Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind​) as Dawn, Dakota Fanning (The Runaways, The Twilight Saga) as Merry, Emmy winner Uzo Aduba (Orange Is the New Black), and Academy Award nominee David Strathairn (Lincoln, Good Night, and Good Luck). We'll have to wait and see how much more footage will be released between now and this fall when the movie hits theaters. However, it will have plenty of competition when it opens.

American Pastoral hits theaters on October 21, a release date where there are already six movies opening in wide release. Lionsgate's Boo! A Madea Halloween, Paramount's Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Focus Features' A Monster Calls, 20th Century Fox's Keeping Up With the Jonses, Universal's Ouija: Origin of Evil and PureFlix's I'm Not Ashamed are all set to open. Take a look at the first trailer for American Pastoral courtesy of Youtube.