Yahoo! Movies has the first trailer for Fox Walden’s Nim’s Island, directed by Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett.

See the poster for the film at right; click for larger view.

Nim’s Island, which stars Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin, and Gerard Butler, hits theaters April 4, 2008.

Official Synopsis

Anything can happen on Nim’s Island, a magical place ruled by a young girl’s (Breslin) imagination. It is an existence that mirrors that of her favorite literary character, Alex Rover — the world’s greatest adventurer. But Alexandra (Foster), the author of the Rover books, leads a reclusive life in the big city. When Nim’s father (Butler) goes missing from their island, a twist of fate brings her together with Alexandra. Now, they must draw courage from their fictional hero, Alex Rover, and find strength in one another to conquer Nim’s Island.

Judging by the trailer, Nim’s looks a little bit like Romancing the Stone, except it’s more of a family adventure. Like Stone’s author played by Kathleen Turner, you have Foster as Alexandra, a writer who goes on an unexpected dangerous adventure and is totally a fish-out-of-water. Alexandra must draw on the fictional experiences of her own created literary hero. Then there’s Butler’s handsome, rugged hat-wearing hero-type, similar to the character Michael Douglas played in Stone.

Where Nim’s differs (so far) is the inclusion of Breslin as the young girl Nim, who reaches out to Alexandra to help her find her dad, played by Butler, who happens to resemble the author’s most popular character, the adventurer Alex Rover. Also, instead of searching for an object of wealth, they are searching for a person and trying to save the island where Nim lives. It’s not clear from the trailer whether the danger is all or in-part imaginary, in the vein of Bridge to Terabithia.

Either way, this is an unlikely role for Foster, so I’m interested in seeing how she does as an unconfident and at times incompetent nervous wreck. It should be fun.