Michel Gondry fans, this is going to be a big year. The director of this generation’s most romantic movie (title not really needed, but, Be Kind Rewind) is releasing three features in 2013, and we have the preview for what, perhaps, is his most esoteric offering of that trio. I guess the fact that we have no idea as to how it may be seen only speaks to this.

Unless you’re a student at MIT, whereat Gondry will be showing Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?: An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky, a picture with the somewhat self-explanatory title — unless you weren’t aware that Noam Chomsky is one of the world’s most-respected linguists. (Now you know.) You’d think the director’s eccentricities would make for a worthwhile combination with the subject’s unusual central area of study, and, when you look at this trailer, that could prove to be the case. I’m liking what’s available here — the animation is unique and fun, while Chomsky can be a fascinating, eye-opening figure — so, God willing, any sort of accessible release will be put into place.

Watch the trailer below (via ThePlaylist):

For a better idea of what’s to follow, read Gondry‘s thoughts on the project:

“My conversations with Professor Chomsky were lively, sometime complex, always very human. Through my illustrations, we follow the winding path of my halting and incomplete understanding. Noam is often patient, sometime less so. The trail always follows unexpected bends. The process and logic of Noam’s stream of ideas have determined the transitions and evolution of my drawings. The concept of ‘animated documentary’ finds a perfect justification here.

At the heart of the conversation, we encounter Noam’s theory of the emergence of language. Listening to Noam discuss this topic made we wonder what it would have been like to meet the astronomer Edwin Hubble and listen to him talk about the red shift he observed from distant galaxies and how it led to the theory of the big bang. Maybe that is a weak comparison, but it is another way of simply saying I felt privileged to have this dialogue.

In the end, what will stay the most with me in these discussions is Noam Chomsky’s humanity, the way he respects people’s different ways of life, their beliefs – and, above all, the way he often includes his wife, Carol Chomsky, in the conversations, and in some way keeps her alive and next to him.”

Does this look like a good avenue for Gondry to go down?