Mark Ruffalo takes on a corrupt chemical company in Todd Haynes' Dark Waters trailer

In his first movie role since Avengers: Endgame, Mark Ruffalo takes on another kind of Mad Titan: a corrupt chemical company poisoning a small community.

In the first Dark Waters trailer, previewing the next film from Carol and Wonderstruck helmer Todd Haynes, Ruffalo debuts as Robert Billot. Billot was the real-life lawyer who took on the DuPont chemical company after discovering it unleashed harmful pollutants in a small town's drinking water.

The film, penned by screenwriters Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan, is based on the New York Times Magazine article "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare."

Ruffalo, who often speaks about environmental issues over social media, wrote to EW in an email about the role.

"I have come to feel like the culture calls a movie into existence. Sometimes a movie can be a kind of offspring of a cultural phenomenon or mood or desire to address cultural issues," he writes. "Sometimes a movie can touch down during a specific cultural debate at precisely the moment that debate is most relative. I felt like the The Kids Are Alright landed nicely in the middle of the gay marriage debate and Spotlight addressed the Catholic Church's unconscionable cover up of rampant priest sex abuse of children at just the right moment. These movies didn't come out of the blue but came out of our need to talk about it."

Dark Waters also stars Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, and Bill Pullman.

The film is scheduled for a limited release on Nov. 22 before expanding to more theaters on Nov. 29.

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