New Trailer for 'Southpaw' Starring Jake Gyllenhaal

Jake Gyllenhaal is one of those actors who - over the past few years - seems to have finally figured things out and gotten his head on straight.

After 2010's attempt to launch a big-budget franchise as an action star with Disney's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (which bombed both critically and commercially), Gyllenhaal decided to take a step back and focus on taking quality roles in smaller movies.

While he finished out 2010 with the so-so romance/drama/comedy Love & Other Drugs (it didn't know what it wanted to be), as well as trying his hand as an action star again in the more modest hit Source Code in 2011, it was 2012 where Gyllenhaal started to hit his stride.

He did the David Ayer drama, End of Watch, which garnered both surprising box office success and critical acclaim, followed by 2013's child abduction thriller, Prisoners, which paired him with Hugh Jackman to find his kidnapped daughter.  This film also received critical success and did a strong showing at the box office.  Then there was last year's Nightcrawler, which placed Gyllenhaal front and center as a slightly psychotic freelance photographer looking to make it big.  It was a neo-noir thriller which once again hit with critics as well as garnering the actor some of the best reviews of his career, coming close to even landing an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Now, here we are in 2015 with the actor taking on probably his most challenging role yet, that of Billy Hope in Southpaw.  The boxing drama tells the story of Hope, a junior middleweight champion, who tragically loses everything only to decide he's going to fight his way back and not only earn his belt, but the love and affection of his daughter.

The first trailer came earlier this year and it was mind-blowing how Gyllenhaal transformed himself for the role (reportedly training 5 hours a day every day for 5 months) to play a championship boxer.  The 2nd trailer has been released now, and though it's a shorter runtime then the previous one, it certainly is a leaner, meaner cut to promote what looks to be a powerful film.

You can view the new trailer below for Southpaw, which is directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and written by Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy).  It also stars Forest Whitaker, Rachel McAdams, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson and Naomie Harris.

The film hits theaters July 24th.

Source: The Weinstein Company