So far, it's been a good year for Jason Bateman. He voiced a sly and charming fox in the animated smash Zootopia, which has earned more than one billion dollars at the box office worldwide. He portrayed a nasty former classmate of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart in the action-comedy Central Intelligence, a more modest yet still quite successful release this summer.

As those two roles suggest, Bateman has a wide range as an actor. He can play an affable good guy, as he did on TV's Arrested Development, or a multilayered character with an edge, as he showed in Joel Edgerton's terrific suspense drama The Gift last year.

What sort of character will Bateman be playing in Office Christmas Party? The first teaser trailer for the holiday comedy has now been released.

Bateman narrates the raucous trailer for what looks like an outrageous comic tale. The official description says: "When his uptight CEO sister (Jennifer Aniston) threatens to shut down his branch, the branch manager (T.J. Miller) throws an epic Christmas party in order to land a big client and save the day, but the party gets way out of hand." That sounds fine, though there are two hints that there is more to the movie than what initially meets the eye.

First, Office Christmas Party has a wonderful cast, including T.J. Miller, Kate McKinnon, Olivia Munn, Rob Corddry, Randall Park, Jamie Chung, Abbey Lee and Courtney B. Vance. The key, however, may be stars Bateman and Jennifer Aniston.

The two actors have been friends for years and have appeared together in several dark, edgy comedies like The Break-up, Horrible Bosses and The Switch. Their shared sense of humor and preference for oddball material gives hope that this movie will go beyond just a wild, debauched office party.

Second, the filmmaking team of Josh Gordon and Will Speck was nominated for an Academy Award for their 1997 short comedy Culture, eventually leading to their first comedy feature, Blades of Glory. (Rob Corddry had a supporting role.) Then they worked with Bateman and Aniston on The Switch, which avoided certain rom-com cliches. It wasn't entirely successful, but it showed that Gordon and Speck were willing to work outside the normal comedy comfort zone.

We'll have to wait to see what kind of funny Office Christmas Party proves to be. It's set to open in theaters on December 9.