Trailer: Dwayne Johnson is ‘The Smashing Machine’
A24 has released the first trailer for The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne Johnson as legendary UFC fighting champion Mark Kerr from writer/director Benny Safdie.
Kerr is a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion, World Vale Tudo Championship tournament winner, and a PRIDE FC competitor. In collegiate wrestling, Kerr was an NCAA Division I champion. In freestyle wrestling, he won gold and silver medals at the World Cup and silver at the Pan American Games. In submission wrestling, Kerr is a four-time ADCC World Champion, winning his weightclass twice along with the absolute division and the Superfight Championship.
In 2002, Kerr was the subject of an HBO documentary titled The Smashing Machine, which is where the film’s title is borrowed from, and detailed his MMA career fighting in Vale Tudo, the UFC and PRIDE and also focused on Kerr’s struggle with substance abuse, his relationships with his then-girlfriend, various training partners, and friendship with Mark Coleman.
Johnson reunites with Emily Blunt, his Academy Award-nominated co-star in 2021’s Jungle Cruise, who are set to work together again on Martin Scoresese’s next film, a Hawaii-set crime drama. Writer/director Safdie splits from his filmmaking brother Josh, who will have his own feature out this Christmas, the ping pong wizard biopic Marty Supreme with Timothée Chalamet.
It seems A24 has learned its lesson since the rushed late season release of their previous wrestling biodrama The Iron Claw, starring Zac Efron, which garnered great reviews for its awards-worthy cast but its late December date and little build up landed it knocked out during awards season.
The Smashing Machine will be released in theaters on October 3. Here is the trailer.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) Television and Nonfiction Nominations Announced: ‘Adolescence,’ ‘Black Mirror,’ ‘Slow Horses’ and More - March 20, 2026
- Trailer Watch: ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ ‘Dune: Part Three,’ Disclosure Day,’ ‘Wild Horse Nine’ - March 20, 2026
- Six Join 51st Residence of the Festival de Cannes, including Harry Lighton, Mansi Maheshwari, Oliver McGoldrick - March 20, 2026
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 144 – ‘A Matter of Life and Death (Powell and Pressburger, 1946) with Special Guest Jesse Nussman 
Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) Television and Nonfiction Nominations Announced: ‘Adolescence,’ ‘Black Mirror,’ ‘Slow Horses’ and More 
Trailer Watch: ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ ‘Dune: Part Three,’ Disclosure Day,’ ‘Wild Horse Nine’ 
‘Anima’ Review: Sydney Chandler and Takehiro Hira Ground Brian Tetsuro Ivie’s Low-Fi Sci-Fi Road Movie [B+] SXSW