One of my most-anticipated movies of 2011 was The Impossible…but it didn’t show up this year in any form. We actually haven’t heard more than a peep from the disaster drama all year, including no solid plans for release. But it is fitting that the first piece of footage would show in the form of a Spanish teaser, as this is the English-language debut of Juan Antonio Bayona, who gave us the fantastic horror flick The Orphanage.

Starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, who were last seen together in Marc Forster‘s undderrated drama Stay, the film follows a family caught in a horrific tsunami. Bayona told HE this summer that “they are on schedule and working really hard on the editing and visual effects.” They’ve finished shooting last February and did some other touch-ups this summer, but with a completion timeframe around early 2012, we could be seeing this by next fall.

And this first teaser below confirms that, at least for Spanish territories. The footage is actually kind of fantastic, with a shot of Watts ripping out of the water that wouldn’t be unfamiliar in a Lars von Trier film, then what looks like some big-budget tsunami effects. Considering how well-done The Orphanage was, I really can’t wait for Bayona to take on a bigger project like this. Check it out below featuring a transcription thanks to Twitch, that says “On December 26, 2004, a devastating tsunami hit the coast of Southeast Asia. The lives of thousands of families around the world changed forever. This is the true story of one of these families.”

Synopsis:

An account of a family caught, with tens of thousands of strangers, in the mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.

Summit Entertainment will be releasing the film, hopefully, next year.

What do you think of the first footage?