Safdie Brothers Go Solo: First Look at Their New Films The Smashing Machine and Marty Supreme
The directors of Good Time and Uncut Gems, the Safdie brothers, are back! But this time, they've directed their respective films individually. After their last two projects were crime films, both have coincidentally directed movies centered on sports:
The Smashing Machine, Canadian Release Date: October 3rd
This film is written, directed, and edited by Benny Safdie. It focuses on the life of wrestler and mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Mark Kerr. Kerr helped grow the sport’s popularity in its early days, but the fights’ brutal demands took a toll, eventually leading to painkiller addiction. The constant need to travel, since the most lucrative early matches were always in Japan, didn’t help either.
The film's cast includes:
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Fast & Furious franchise) as Mark Kerr.
Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) as Kerr’s wife, Dawn Staples.
MMA fighter Ryan Bader as the first UFC heavyweight champion and PRIDE FC 2000 champion, Mark Coleman.
UFC heavyweight champion Bas Rutten as himself.
Undisputed boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk as MMA fighter Igor Vovchanchyn.
Dwayne Johnson's career has been almost exclusively in commercial blockbusters, making his lead role in this independent film highly anticipated. Previous Safdie films saw major breakout performances from Robert Pattinson and Adam Sandler, the latter of whom won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. The film is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in about two weeks, so we'll soon find out if Johnson's performance has the same groundbreaking impact.
Marty Supreme, Canadian Release Date: December 25th
This film is directed by Josh Safdie. He co-wrote the script with his frequent collaborator, Ronald Bronstein, who also serves as editor. Cinematographer Darius Khondji and composer Daniel Lopatin (Uncut Gems) also reunite with the director for this project. The film, reportedly inspired by American singles champion Marty Reisman, follows a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness. The cast includes SAG Award winner Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), Oscar Best Actress winner Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love, Iron Man Franchise), Odessa A'zion (Until Dawn), reality TV host Kevin O'Leary, rapper Tyler Okonma, director Abel Ferrara and Fran Drescher (Hotel Transylvania).
Timothée Chalamet is currently one of Hollywood's most celebrated young actors. In the past few years, he has already received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for his roles in Call Me by Your Name and A Complete Unknown. This year, he also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for A Complete Unknown. It remains to be seen if his performance in Marty Supreme will earn him another round of major award nominations. Additionally, starting in 2023, a film starring Timothée Chalamet has been released every December, including this year's Marty Supreme and next year's Dune: Part Three. It looks like we'll be having a "Timothée Chalamet Christmas" for a while!
If you are interested in upcoming movies to be released in Canada, please visit the Movie Release Schedule page on this website!
Photo: VVS Films, Elevation Pictures
Source: TIFF, Elevation Pictures