WATCH: Rachel Weisz in first trailer for Deborah Lipstadt biopic

RACHEL WEISZ has appeared in the first trailer for Hollywood movie Denial – a no-holds-barred adaptation of historian Deborah Lipstadt’s legal battle with Holocaust denier David Irving.

The Jewish actress stars as Harvard professor Lipstadt, who was sued for libel by the disgraced author – played by Timothy Spall – in 1996.

Convicted Holocaust denier Irving lost the high-profile case against publishing giant Penguin Books and was branded “an anti-semite and a racist” and “a right-wing pro-Nazi polemicist” by a High Court judge.

Lipstadt – whose book ‘History on Trial: My day in court with a Holocaust denier’ provides the basis for the film – was forced to prove the existence of the Holocaust over the course of the trial.

Weisz, who is married to James Bond actor Daniel Craig, spent several days with the American academic last November.

Hailing the actress as a “consummate professional”, Lipstadt said: “We spent a total of close to 14 hours over two days in conversation. She wanted to hear all sorts of details about my experiences. She had many questions.”

She told the Times of Israel: “Both her parents were refugees from Hitler. I think that gives her a special affinity for this role.”

Acclaimed playwright David Hare wrote the screenplay for the film, which hits cinemas in September.