Moonwalker: Watch Ryan Gosling play Neil Armstrong in the trailer for First Man

The trailer for First Man, the biopic that tells the story of the first man to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, has landed.

Film fans got their first look at actor Ryan Gosling playing the astronaut during the two-and-a-half-minute clip, which studio Universal Pictures released in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The trailer for First Man begins with a shot of Gosling starring wistfully at a rocket as it blasts off from a launchpad. He is then heard saying "Are you sure?" before viewers see him link hands with on-screen wife Claire Foy.

The star of Netflix series The Crown, who portrays Armstrong's first wife, Janet Shearon, replies: "Yeah. (It'll) be an adventure."

Other scenes in the trailer show Gosling as Armstrong training for the 1969 mission.

At one point he is seen catching a floating pen that is suspended in zero-gravity as he flies a plane to the outer reaches of the Earth's atmosphere.

Gosling and Foy are also captured in scenes in the Armstrong household which see them comforting their on-screen children as they voice their fears about their father taking part in the dangerous mission.

Captions in the clip invite viewers to "experience the improbable journey of the most dangerous mission in history".

The final scenes of the clip tease the moments of the famous landing and space walk. Brief shots see the spacecraft hurtling towards the surface of the Moon.

Momentary glimpses are provided of the astronauts' view of the planet and of a close-up shot of one of the crew climbing down from the spacecraft and on to the lunar surface.

The drama adventure film has been directed by Damien Chazelle, who won the Academy Award for Best Director in 2017 for musical romantic comedy La La Land, which also starred Gosling.

Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan director Steven Spielberg has an executive producer credit for First Man.

First Man arrives in New Zealand cinemas on October 11.