The Smashing Machine: Dwayne Johnson fights for an Oscar in first trailer

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt goal for awards glory with the primary trailer for fact-based sports activities drama The Smashing Machine.

The wrestler-turned-actor performs the MMA fighter Mark Kerr within the movie impressed via the 2002 documentary with the similar title. Kerr gained a couple of awards and medals in his profession and likewise struggled with substance abuse.

The movie additionally explores his courting together with his then female friend, performed via Emily Blunt. The pair in the past starred in Disney journey Jungle Cruise.

It comes from the writer-director Benny Safdie, marking his first solo effort at the back of the digital camera. Together together with his brother, he gained approval for crime dramas Good Times and Uncut Gems.

“Benny wants to create, and continues to push the envelope when it comes to stories that are raw and real, characters that are authentic and at times uncomfortable and arresting,” Johnson stated to Variety in 2024. “I’m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I’ve not pushed myself in the past. I’m at a point in my career where I want to make films that matter, that explore a humanity and explore struggle [and] pain.”

The actor additionally made it transparent that this doesn’t constitute “an abandonment of big, four-quadrant movies”.

In December ultimate yr, Blunt known as it “an incredibly immersive, very intense, very emotional experience” and Safdie a “very cool, aesthetically exciting, visual director”.

Last yr Johnson led Christmas motion comedy Red One and can subsequent be noticed within the live-action remake of Moana.

He used to be additionally not too long ago hooked up to some other movie with Blunt, a Hawaii-set crime mystery from Martin Scorsese that will even big name Leonardo DiCaprio. Johnson will co-author a real crime guide at the similar matter, calling it “an unbelievable, inspiring and eye-opening experience”.

Blunt used to be ultimate noticed along Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy after she gained her first Oscar nomination for Oppenheimer. The actor may be set to look in Steven Spielberg’s subsequent untitled movie, a mysterious sci-fi venture additionally starring Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo.

The Smashing Machine will probably be launched in the USA and the United Kingdom on 3 October.