Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West releases first trailer

Family Guy creator writes, directs and stars in western

Seth MacFarlane and Charlize Theron star in A Million Ways to Die in the West (YouTube)

A Million Ways to Die in the West has debuted its first trailer, a comedy from Seth MacFarlane giving gross-out gags a Western spin.

The Ted and Family Guy creator's next film sees him direct, co-write and star, playing a cowardly farmer who enlists the help of a gunslinger's wife (Charlize Theron) in the hope of winning back a woman who left him.

While most of the Westerns we've seen in recent years have gone for gritty realism, this film seems less concerned with authenticity and more with slapstick humour, the cast making no attempts to adopt a Western twang.

It features an all-star cast, with Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson, Neil Patrick Harris, Giovanni Ribisi and Sarah Silverman also on board.

Ted was a big hit for MacFarlane in 2012, while his long-running cartoon Family Guy remains a success on television, given new life by a headline-grabbing major character death at the end of last year.

A Million Ways to Die in the West opens in US cinemas on 30 May and in the UK on 6 June.