Yesterday, MGM dropped the trailer for the biopic The Fire Inside, a film that tells the story of Claressa Shields and her humble beginnings from Flint, Michigan to her groundbreaking Olympic boxing victories, and beyond. I always like to say that it’s pretty easy to cut a great-looking preview even from a bad movie, but The Fire Inside looks positively electric. You can tell how much confidence MGM has in the film by its theatrical release date: December 25, 2024–Christmas day–a date studios reserve for Oscar contenders.
The Fire Inside my be an underdog, but looking at the pedigree of those behind the film, it’s not hard to understand their confidence. The film’s screenplay comes from Barry Jenkins, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, and the heralded Amazon limited series, The Underground Railroad. Director Rachel Morrison will be making her feature film debut as a director. Morrison has long served as cinematographer on other directors’ movies and has an Oscar herself for shooting Dee Rees’ Mudbound in 2017.
Relative newcomer Ryan Destiny leads the cast as the adult Shields, Jazmin Headley plays the young Claressa, and Bryan Tyree Henry (Oscar nominee for Causeway, and two-time Emmy nominee for Atlanta, and This is Us).
That’s enough from me. Just lean forward and watch this blazing trailer.
