Mark Wahlberg is a boxer-turned-priest in the new trailer for Father Stu, a true-life drama also starring Mel Gibson and Jacki Weaver.
Mark Wahlberg goes from boxer to priest in the new trailer for Father Stu. When he’s not out searching for hidden treasure with Tom Holland as in the upcoming action film Uncharted, Wahlberg is known for starring in gritty real-life dramas that he also produces.
Wahlberg’s run of heading up movies based on true stories of course began with his role as boxer Mickey Ward in the Oscar-winning David O. Russell film The Fighter. Wahlberg later followed that up by playing Afghanistan war veteran Marcus Luttrell in the harrowing drama Sole Survivor. And 2016 saw the arrival of not one but two Wahlberg-brand real-life action movies: the disaster-centered Deepwater Horizon and the straight-from-the-headlines thriller Patriots Day (in which he played a character who was actually a composite of several real-life police detectives tasked with finding the ones responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing).
Wahlberg’s next acting and producing project based on a true story sees him once again putting on boxing gloves (the movie was indeed set to be directed by The Fighter helmer Russell at one point), this time playing fighter-turned-priest Stuart Long in the gritty drama Father Stu. See the first trailer for the Rosalind Ross-directed film in the space below (via Sony Pictures Entertainment):
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The synopsis for Father Stu (which was once titled simply Stu) says the film “is an unflinchingly honest, funny and ultimately uplifting drama about a lost soul who finds his purpose in a most unexpected place.” The story follows Wahlberg’s Stu as he washes out as an amateur boxer and instead sets his sights on becoming a star in Los Angeles. But his hard-drinking ways contribute to Stuart nearly losing his life in a motorcycle accident. The new trailer’s tone indeed takes a hard turn from rowdy to solemn as Wahlberg’s character, stricken with a degenerative muscle disease in the wake of his accident, decides to join the priesthood and becomes an inspirational figure. Jacki Weaver co-stars in the film as Wahlberg’s mother, alongside Mel Gibson as his father and Teresa Ruiz as the woman who puts Stuart Long on the path to becoming Father Stu.
The one-two punch of upcoming Wahlberg films indeed neatly encapsulates the way the actor has managed his career over the years. With Uncharted, he’s in pure non-superhero popcorn entertainment mode as in films like Infinite, Mile 22 and Daddy’s Home. But with Father Stu he’s back in the realm of down-to-earth real-life storytelling playing a character who finds himself in the center of some drama of a more personal nature. It will be interesting to see which Wahlberg effort pulls in a more impressive audience as the two movies hit multiplexes a couple of months apart. Father Stu is exclusively in theaters on April 15, 2022.
Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Dan Zinski is a freelance scribe currently contributing to Screen Rant as a movie and TV news writer. He previously wrote for FanSided, The Viking Age, Lightly Buzzed and Dotspotter. His favorite actors include Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Cate Blanchett, Groucho Marx and Richard Burton. His favorite directors include David Lynch, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard and whoever made Night of the Comet. His hottest movie take is that Solo is better than Return of the Jedi. His hottest TV take is that Parks and Rec is the greatest sitcom of all-time.
Father Stu Movie Trailer: Mark Wahlberg Becomes A Priest – Screen Rant
