Jake Gyllenhaal packs a punch in Southpaw trailer

 

Last year Jake Gyllenhaal gave one of the best performances of his career since his Donnie Darko days in Nightcrawler. He lost a significant amount of weight to play the eerie Louis Bloom, but has now piled on the pounds to convincingly portray a boxer in his latest film, Southpaw.

Southpaw follows the story of Billy Hope (Gyllenhaal), a middleweight boxer who is hungry for fame and fortune. Just as it appears he has made it, tragedy strikes, and he now has more troubles than his opponents in the ring to fight with.

It’s fair to say that the 2 and half-minute long trailer gives rather a lot of the film away, so if you would rather go into the film without too many details I would maybe give it a miss.

After a long time in development hell (with Eminem supposedly set to star) Training Day and The Equaliser director Antoine Fuqua has jumped on board to helm the script. The trailer appears to focus just as much on the action as on the emotional drama of the story, with a bulky Gyllenhaal packing serious punches in the ring.

Although Fuqua’s past record is a bit patchy, he has a great cast (including Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker) and a lead actor coming of the back from one of his best performances. It will certainly be interesting to see how the film develops.

Southpaw also stars Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, and Beau Knapp and will land in UK cinemas on 31st July.