A new viral video has gone online to promote Nightcrawler, in which a gaunt and wild-eyed Jake Gyllenhaal makes a desperate plea for employment.

The film will follow Gyllenhaal’s character, Louis Bloom, as he stumbles upon the murky world of freelance crime journalism, with this video serving to establish the mindset that takes him down such a road in the first place.

It’s certainly an arresting first clip, with Gyllenhaal on supremely unnerving form as the twitchiest of prospective employees…

Take a look at the new video, below…

“If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket!” It’s the increasing desperation with which Gyllenhaal delivers that line that really sells the mania here. This is a man on the edge…

Written and directed by Dan Gilroy, and co-starring Rene Russo, Bill Paxton and Riz Ahmed, Nightcrawler will open in the UK on 14 November 2014.