Will Smith Takes on the NFL in First Trailer for CONCUSSION
The first trailer for Will Smith's upcoming film Concussion has been released. The movie revolves around the ongoing controversy of head injuries in the NFL. Smith plays a forensic neuropathologist named Dr. Bennet Omalu. He is the person who discovers the first case of CTE in a professional football player. He makes an effort to save lives by letting the world know about his discovery, but as you might expect, the NFL denies his findings and attempts to block his efforts to get the word out.
The movie was written and directed by Peter Landesman, and it has a great supporting cast that includes Alec Baldwin, Luke Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Arliss Howard, Paul Reiser, David Morse, and Albert Brooks.
The film is based on the David vs. Goliath journey of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of football-related brain trauma in a pro player and fought to bring awareness to the public. In his search for the truth behind the devastating malady, Omalu’s quest humanizes the price paid by professional athletes in impact sports but also by people who challenge the status quo as it exposes the political, cultural and corporate interests that fuel the business of sports.
The movie is being produced by Ridley Scott, and it looks like it will be a powerful drama. It is actually based on based on a 2009 GQ article titled "Game Brain" by Jeanne Marie Laskas. The director talked about why he made the movie in an interview with mmqb:
"I gravitate towards stories of David versus Goliath, the small man versus the machine. Whether it is Bennet Omalu or Gary Webb, a reporter who discovered the cocaine trafficking with the CIA and was destroyed by the Washington Post and the CIA and others. In my writing career as a journalist, it was little man against the machine so I think I am just hard-wired for that narrative. When I heard about Bennet Omalu, I recognized that the story operated on a number of levels that made it completely unique. As an immigrant coming to America, who discovers a dangerous detail about the most American of things, America’s sacred cow, who then is forced to tell America about itself as a disaffected Nigerian, it was an extraordinary opportunity to explore what it is to be an American. And it was a gorgeous way to understand what it is to be a citizen of this nation. And then there was the sports element. I played football for two years in college, I love the game, I am an athlete, I love sports and I watch football. I went to Brown, the powerhouse. I thought this was another way to un-peel the layers away from the theater of it and the pageantry of it to get to the humanity of it."
The movie will be released in theaters on December 25th.
MMQB is up. @SI_PeterKing on all 32 teams and exclusive debut of @ConcussionMovie trailer: http://t.co/q0tc3HHgln https://t.co/HNJCF2OoDw
— The MMQB (@theMMQB) August 31, 2015