The first pictures have been unveiled for All of Us Strangers, which features “fearless” sex scenes between Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott.

The upcoming British romance fantasy follows a screenwriter (Scott) who, whilst falling in love with his neighbour (Mescal), comes across his dead parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) in the same state as they were when they passed away.

Based on the novel Strangers by Japanese novelist Taichi Yamada, All of Us Strangers is written and directed by Andrew Haigh, who previously received acclaim for Weekend (2011) and 45 Years (2015), as well as his work on Looking (2014-2015).

In an interview with Vanity FairHaigh said there was “chemistry” between Mescal and Scott “literally the second I saw them together,” before teasing of the film’s intimate scenes: “Both of them were pretty fearless. There was no sense of them being afraid of approaching those scenes. They knew how important they were.”

He added: “I’ve been more objective in how I’ve shot sex scenes in the past. Here, I really wanted to feel the subjective nature of having sex and what it feels like—the nervousness and the excitement and the physical sensation of being touched by someone else, and what that does to you.”

Mescal is best known for his role in Normal People, which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and a BAFTA TV Award. For his performance in the 2022 coming-of-age drama Aftersun, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Scott, a fellow BAFTA winner, is known to audiences for television shows such as Sherlock (2010-2017) and Fleabag (2019), in addition to films such as Pride (2014), Spectre (2015) and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016).

All of Us Strangers is scheduled for release on 22 December in the US (a UK date is yet to be announced) – check out the first batch of images below.