Jake Gyllenhaal Boxing Drama Southpaw Trailer
Jake Gyllenhaal is stepping into the ring for Antoine Fuqua's Southpaw. Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker also star.
Jake Gyllenhaal may have been criminally overlooked for his tour de force in last year’s Nightcrawler, but the actor is already stepping back into the ring with another transformative performance: this time as a southpaw boxer who once had it all, but now has something to prove (I feel like I’ve heard this one before?).
In Southpaw, a new film from director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) and screenwriters Kurt Sutter and Richard Wenk (Sons of Anarchy and The Mechanic, respectively), Jake Gyllenhaal plays Billy Hope. Also known as “The Great Hope,” Billy is the Junior Middleweight Champion of the World until a tragedy costs him the life of his beloved wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams).
Succumbing to grief—and a bevy of alcohol—Billy soon loses his daughter as well to Child Services. If this Hope wants to regain his daughter, his income, vengeance, and finally some self-respect, he’ll have to let a washed up boxer named Tick (Forest Whitaker) train him before going back into the ring. I am definitely sensing a “montage” in the making.
Okay, so this sounds like a combination of the plots for Rocky III and Rocky IV. But Gyllenhaal appears more than game in this trailer and the rest of the cast, including Whitaker, McAdams, Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, seems to be bringing enough heat to pique our interest.
Southpaw opens July 31, 2015.