Detroit trailer: Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow tackles American race relations

John Boyega, Anthony Mackie and John Krasinski star in Kathryn Bigelow’s upcoming movie about the Detroit riots in the summer of 1967.

The movie world has been waiting four years to see the return of Kathryn Bigelow, the only female winner of the Best Director Oscar (with The Hurt Locker in 2010). For her next movie, the conflict zone specialist is leaving the Middle East -- the setting of her last two movies -- behind, and heading to the US city of Detroit to portray the Detroit riots, a major event in American history.

At the end of July 1967, the Michigan city was the scene of violent protests following a police raid of an unlicensed, after-hours bar, which enflamed racial tensions, particularly between police and the African-American community. More than 40 people were killed and 500 were injured in the space of four days.

The movie stars John Boyega (Star Wars: the Force Awakens), Anthony Mackie (Avengers: Age of Ultron) and John Krasinski (The Office) and is scheduled for release August 4 in US theatres -- 50 years after the event.