Watch Tom Hiddleston sing his heart out in first trailer for I Saw the Light

Hiddleston stars in the biopic of famed country singer Hank Williams.

The first trailer for Marc Abraham's I Saw the Light has dropped.

The biopic stars Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams, one of the most influential country singers in American musical history, who died tragically young at the age of 29. Williams suffered a heart failure on the journey to a New Year's Day concert in 1953, brought on by years of drug and alcohol abuse. What he left behind was a legacy of hits spanning across the years which followed the end of World War II, including "Move it on Over" and "Lost Highway".

Two morsels of intrigue exist here. First off, the thick-as-molasses Southern accent Hiddleston's sporting, eradicating any trace of his Brit origins. Secondly, the singing. Of course, Hiddleston's no stranger to the musical note, having crooned both in interviews and on stage (notably in a 2007 production of Cymbeline at the Barbican). But imitating one of the most iconic voices in country music is an entirely different beast, and one the actor was forced to prove he was capable of in a live preview; footage surfaced last year of the actor joining Rodney Crowell on stage at the Wheatland Musical Festival.

And, though Williams' grandson has branded the performance as lacking the original "soul or moan", it's likely the vast majority will be suitably impressed by Hiddleston's take on the figure. Both Hiddleston and co-star Elizabeth Olsen received positive reviews when the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, though the film was received significantly less warmly as a whole.

Which may be the reason the film has officially dropped from the Oscar race, with Sony Pictures Classics moving its release date from the award season-heavy 28 November to the quieter fields of 5 February in the UK. Though it doesn't officially put Hiddleston out of the race, it'll be near impossible for this relatively small production to sustain enough buzz to carry itself all the way to the 2017 Academy Awards.

And, with the film treading the territory of infidelity, a troubled marriage, substance abuse, and redemption (all made familiar with the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line); it'll be interesting to see whether Hiddleston can drum up as much praise and adoration as Joaquin Phoenix managed to garner for his Cash back in 2005.