A new trailer for A24’s A Prayer Before Dawn was released, giving movie fans and Muay Thai fans a look at the upcoming film based on the true story of the fighter turned drug addict turned prisoner turned Muay Thai survivalist, Bill Moore.
The movie is directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and has been screened already in a few places but doesn’t appear to be set for wider release until early 2018. The new trailer for the film was posted up over on the A24 YouTube channel, rolling through the ups and downs of Moore’s life as he goes from a down-and-out addict to a reformed fighter. Check it out below.
The trailer is cut together in a rather erratic way, likely done purposefully to imitate Moore’s violent and chaotic life.
We get hints of what he was like before going to a Thailand prison, which consisted of strip clubs and coffee tables full of drugs. Eventually he’s caught and carted off to a jail where he spends day and night in the confines of other Thai.
After suffering through the humiliation of prison life for long enough, he begs the trainers there to finally give him a shot and train him in Muay Thai kickboxing.
The trailer keeps itself rather distanced from showing itself as a fight film, though. It’s obviously a redemption story but it’s not about fancy fight choreography or over-the-top opponents Moore has to face off against.
I at least hope that the movie does contain some decent fight scenes. It would be a shame to lure people into a film about one of the most celebrated martial arts styles and then skimp out on actually showing how beautiful and deadly it actually is.
In any case, it appears to be a new-age version of Rocky for the kids who love Muay Thai.
The director has some interesting projects under his belt, so this may turn out to be fairly decent. It would be remiss not to point that this film will likely gauge how well Sauvaire’s upcoming flick, Addicted To Violence, will pan out and whether it will be worth looking forward to. The latter film is being positioned as an action film, so how Sauvaire handles the action beats in this biopic will likely determine how well he does in Addicted To Violence.
Anyway, you can look for A Prayer Before Dawn to hit theaters in spring of 2018.
