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To put it simply, Gus Van Sant’s upcoming film Milk, which stars Sean Penn as California’s first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, looks fantastic. I wasn’t all that excited about this film until this very moment. But now, having seen the trailer, I’m excited. We all know that while Sean Penn might be annoying at times, he is a damn good actor when he finds a role that he can really get into. And it appears that he has found such a role in Milk. Have a look at the trailer, which debuted this afternoon over at Apple, below.

For those unfamiliar with the story, it follows Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), an openly gay man who ran for city supervisor in San Francisco in the late 1970s and became California’s first openly gay elected official. He was later assassinated by Dan White (played in the film by Josh Brolin), a former city supervisor with whom Milk had a fierce rivalry.

As for the film, this is Gus Van Sant’s most high profile film since Finding Forrester in 2000. He put out the critically acclaimed Paranoid Park in 2007, but that never really made waves with the mainstream audience. Milk appears to be the type of film that could not only get some critical praise, but could be sticking around come Oscar night. Then again, its only one trailer — but a good one, at that. Milk also stars James Franco, Emile Hirsch and Diego Luna. It hits theaters on December 5th.