Southpaw is a boxing term that designates the stance where the boxer has his right hand and right foot forward, leading with right jabs, and following with a left cross right hook. Southpaw is the normal stance for a left-handed boxer.
Slim Shady was initially supposed to take on the key role but he backed out to focus on his music career. The rapper released his new album ”MMLP2” and is expected to tour across the country in the following months.
“Southpaw” centers on a welterweight boxer who fights to reclaim his past glory and win back the affection of his young daughter. The project was initially developed at DreamWorks, but it was later bought by MGM and was set to be distributed by Sony Pictures.
Eminem’s departure last year put the project in limbo once again before it was saved by the Weinstein Company. Antoine Fuqua directed the pic, with the script penned by Kurt Sutter. “The heart of the movie is about a man learning to be a father,” Fuqua once told the Los Angeles Times.
From acclaimed director Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) and starring Academy Award-nominated Jake Gyllenhaal (“Nightcrawler,” “Brokeback Mountain”) comes a story of tragedy, loss and the painful road to redemption… Billy “The Great” Hope (Gyllenhaal) is the reigning Junior Middleweight Champion whose unorthodox stance, the so-called “Southpaw,” consists of an ineloquent, though brutal, display of offensive fighting…one fueled by his own feelings of inadequacy and a desperate need for love, money and fame. With a beautiful family, home and financial security, Billy is on top both in and out of the ring until a tragic accident leaves his wife dead and sends him into a downward spiral.
His days now an endless haze of alcohol and prescription drugs, his daughter taken by Child Services and his home repossessed by the bank, Billy’s fate is all but sealed until a washed up former boxer named Tick agrees to take the bereaved pugilist under his wing so long as he agrees to his strict ethos. Relentless and utterly committed to a fighter that thinks as much as he throws punches, Tick rebuilds Billy into a new man: one that is agile, fearsome and uncompromising in the ring while thoughtful, loving and disciplined outside of it. Now, as he works to regain custody of his daughter and mounts a professional comeback, Billy must face his demons head-on as he learns that, sometimes, your greatest opponent can be yourself…
The film was originally considered as an unofficial follow-up to the movie 8 Mile (2002) with Eminem reprising his role. The script eventually evolved and that idea was scrapped.
Jake went through an intense 2 hours a day of training 7 days a week. Training at Floyd Mayweather, Jr.’s Atlanta training center.
Lupita Nyong’o was cast as Angela Rivera, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Naomie Harris plays Angela Rivera instead.
Eminem did the soundtrack of the movie, but he doesn’t appear in it.
The film is now playing.
Check out some photos from the New York premiere below presented by Chase Sapphire Preferred:
