LOS ANGELES, June 12 -- The pitch is older than the studio system itself: a man, a dog and a wilderness that wants them both dead. Paramount is betting its fall on the proposition that nobody has ever walked out on that movie, and on Thursday it showed its cards, releasing the first trailer for Heart of the Beast with Brad Pitt staring down the Alaskan interior with nothing but a retired service dog named Odin between him and the food chain.

The survival thriller, directed by David Ayer from a script by Cameron Alexander, lands in theaters September 25, Variety reported. Pitt plays James Belmont, a former Army Special Forces soldier whose small plane goes down deep in the Alaskan wilderness, leaving him to climb, ford and fight his way b...