Watch the new trailer for "The Public" in the video player above.
CINCINNATI -- We just got our first look at Emilio Estevez's Cincinnati-filmed "The Public," and most notably, the Queen City finally gets to play itself rather than some time-warped, poor man's version of New York City.
The first promo trailer came out Wednesday, prominently featuring Downtown's main library, where a group of homeless people refuse to head out into the brutal winter cold at closing time since emergency shelters are packed over capacity.
It's an intriguingly relevant plot, considering protests and contentious meetings have filled the normally sedate space in recent weeks over a plan to close the library's north building.
Take a look at that "8 News You Can Use" logo.
Cincinnati references are packed into the nearly 3-minute preview, including local ambulances, police cruisers and even news trucks (the 8 News You Can Use logo on Gabrielle Union's microphone looks suspiciously like WCPO's own 9 On Your Side design).
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The Public will make its debut on Jan. 31, 2018, when it opens the Santa Barbara Film Festival.
“With The Public, I feel (Estevez) has done his most personal and fully realized work," Roger Durling, executive director of the festival told Deadline.com. "The Public speaks wonderfully about our current divided country, but it also does not preach. It keeps us cinematically immersed.”
Estevez directed, wrote and starred in the film. It also features actors Taylor Schilling, Alec Baldwin, Jena Malone and Jeffrey Wright.
Earlier this year, Estevez told WCPO it was important to him that Cincinnati not masquerade as some other city in the film, and he credited the city for helping put all the pieces into place to expedite its production.
"I don't think there is any other library in any other city in America that would allow us the sort of access that we've had," he said.
