‘Southpaw’ Trailer: Jake Gyllenhaal Gets Brutal in the Boxing Ring

The first trailer for Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw seemingly laid out the entire plot of the film, but the second official trailer for the director’s latest drama is more compact, focusing more on the intensity of the piece. Although Fuqua’s films in recent years haven’t been exactly amazing, the promise of Jake Gyllenhaal in Southpaw is too good to ignore.

Gyllenhaal gave two (technically three) of the best performances last year with Nightcrawler and Enemy, further establishing himself as one of the our most riveting actors to watch. We’ll be seeing even more of Gyllenhaal’s superb skills in a few more films this year, including Everest and Southpaw — the latter of which has delivered one hell of a solid trailer, featuring an original track by Eminem. (When Fuqua originally conceived the project, Eminem was supposed to play the lead role.)

From director Antoine Fuqua (TRAINING DAY) and writers Kurt Sutter (SONS OF ANARCHY) and Richard Wenk (THE MECHANIC) comes SOUTHPAW – the story of Billy “The Great” Hope, Junior Middleweight Boxing Champion of the World. When tragedy strikes and he loses it all, Billy enters the battle of his life as he struggles to become a contender once again and win back those he loves. SOUTHPAW stars Academy Award® nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, Academy Award® winner Forest Whitaker, Rachel McAdams, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Rita Ora, Naomie Harris and Victor Ortiz.  In theaters July 2015.

Southpaw hits theaters on July 24.