Sports fans are in for a special treat from Santa Claus–or is it Santa Claws?–this Christmas with A24’s release of The Iron Claw, a drama about the legendary and star-crossed Von Erich wrestling family.
According to reports in Variety, the film will debut on December 22, starring Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, and Holt McCallany as the Von Erich brothers who thrilled wrestling fans in the 1980s. Maura Tierney will play the role of the family matriarch Doris while Lily James plays Kevin’s wife Pam.
Written and directed by Sean Durkin, the film focuses on the so-called “Von Erich curse”: the tragic events that befell the wrestling dynasty. Five of the six Von Erich brothers died prematurely, several by accident or suicide. Kevin is the last surviving son of the family patriarch, Fritz Von Erich, who had also been a professional wrestling star.
Durkin had previously written and directed Elizabeth Olsen’s breakout movie, Martha Marcy May Marlene, which was released in 2011.
In describing his workout regimen for his Iron Claw role, Efron told Men’s Health he approached the task differently than he’d done while prepping for Baywatch in 2017, which sent him into “a pretty bad depression, for a long time.”
“That Baywatch look, I don’t know if that’s really attainable,” he told that publication. “There’s just too little water in the skin. Like, it’s fake; it looks CGI’d. And that required Lasix, powerful diuretics, to achieve. So I don’t need to do that. I much prefer to have an extra, you know, 2 to 3 percent body fat.”
The real-life Kevin has been quoted as saying that Efron “looked great” when he saw photos of the film as shooting was underway.
The Iron Claw is being produced by Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Angus Lamont from House Productions, Durkin and A24. Executive producers are Derrin Schlesinger and Harrison Huffman from House Productions, Len Blavatnik and Danny Cohen from Access Entertainment and Eva Yates from BBC Film.
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