Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne Johnson as legendary combined martial arts and UFC fighter Mark Kerr, delivered a knockout punch Monday on the Venice Movie Competition.
The A24 movie had its world premiere Monday evening inside Sala Grande and the viewers went wild, responding with a 15-minute standing ovation. It proved to be a particular evening for Johnson as Kerr additionally made the trek to Venice for the displaying the place they have been joined by co-star Emily Blunt. Amid cheers of “DJ,” “Benny” and “Emily,” the viewers went wild as all 4 — Johnson, Blunt, Safdie and Kerr — have been all teary-eyed all through the emotional scene. Even Seth Rogen, a shock visitor, was cheering and hollering whereas holding a digital camera all through the ovation and snapping photographs the whole time.
Safdie tracks Kerr’s trajectory from the heights of fame to all-time low and again once more. Kerr made a reputation for himself dominating opponents within the octagonal ring — his work helped usher in a brand new period as he turned probably the most highly effective fighter the game had seen — whereas battling his personal demons outdoors of it with a dependence on painkillers that almost took him out. Blunt stars because the love of Kerr’s life, Daybreak Staples-Kerr, in what marks a reteaming of the actors after their extra household pleasant movie, The Jungle Cruise, from Disney.
The Smashing Machine’s ensemble encompasses a roster of first-time actors, together with combined martial artist Ryan Bader, who performs Kerr’s rival-turned-mentor Mark Coleman, and a slew of modern-day fighters like Oleksandr Usyk, Satoshi Ishii, James Moontasril, Paul Cheng, Cyborg Abreu, Andre Tricoteux and Marcus Aurélio.
The world premiere delivered a giant second for Johnson, one in all Hollywood’s most profitable film stars, as he steps outdoors of the franchise world he’s turn into identified for by taking an opportunity on a character-driven arthouse drama. It’s additionally a step in a brand new course for Safdie, because it marks his first solo directorial effort after making motion pictures together with his brother, Josh Safdie.
Safdie directed The Smashing Machine from a script he wrote. He credited Johnson with bringing him the concept for the movie, a mission that gained traction as soon as he watched The Smashing Machine: The Life and Instances of Excessive Fighter Mark Kerr, a 2002 documentary. Safdie produced with Johnson, Eli Bush, Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia and David Koplan with govt producer Tracey Landon.
“He approached me in, I feel, 2019, to presumably do that film. I watched the documentary about Mark and immediately fell in love with him, as a result of I couldn’t consider that he existed. There was one thing about him that I felt like I understood,” Safdie mentioned within the movie’s press notes. There was one thing actually sophisticated about Mark that I wished to discover. And there was one thing about Dwayne, too. He has this picture of himself out within the public, however as he spoke to me about Mark, and as he talked about this film, oh my God! I spotted there was an entire different aspect to him that we might discover collectively.{
The Smashing Machine is ready for launch from A24 on Oct. 3. The Venice Movie Competition runs Aug. 27-Sept. 6.