Watching the new trailer for Barry Levinson comedy-drama "Rock the Kasbah," it's difficult to imagine anyone other than Bill Murray in the starring role.

The comedy icon seems to embrace his role as Richie Lanz, a has-been rock manager who takes his last remaining artist (Zooey Deschanel) on a USO tour of Afghanistan, only to be abandoned there, penniless and without a passport. But while trying to find his way home, Richie befriends a group of misfits and discovers a young girl with an extraordinary voice who might be his last shot at creating a superstar.

Opening Oct. 23, “Rock the Kasbah” also stars Kate Hudson, Danny McBride, Scott Caan, Bruce Willis and Leem Lubany.

A has-been rock manager from Van Nuys, California stumbles upon a once-in-a-lifetime voice in a remote Afghan cave in Rock the Kasbah, a dramatic comedy inspired by stranger-than-fiction, real-life events and directed by Oscar winner Barry Levinson. Richie Lanz (Bill Murray), dumped and stranded in war-torn Kabul by his last remaining client (Zooey Deschanel), discovers Salima Khan (Leem Lubany), a Pashtun teenager with a beautiful voice and the courageous dream of becoming the first woman to compete on national television in Afghanistan’s  version of “American Idol.”  Richie partners with a savvy hooker (Kate Hudson), a pair of hard-partying war profiteers (Danny McBride and Scott Caan) and a hair-trigger mercenary (Bruce Willis) and, braving dangerous cultural prejudices, manages his new protégée into becoming the “Afghan Star.”