Sony Pictures Classics has released a brand new teaser trailer for the upcoming film FOXCATCHER starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo.
When Olympic Gold Medal winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is invited by wealthy heir John du Pont (Steve Carell) to move on to the du Pont estate and help form a team to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics at his new state-of-the-art training facility, Schultz jumps at the opportunity, hoping to focus on his training and finally step out of the shadow of his revered brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo). Driven by hidden needs, du Pont sees backing Schultz’s bid for Gold and the chance to “coach” a world-class wrestling team as an opportunity to gain the elusive respect of his peers and, more importantly, his disapproving mother (Vanessa Redgrave).
Flattered by the attention and entranced by du Pont’s majestic world, Mark comes to see his benefactor as a father figure and grows increasingly dependent on him for approval. Though initially supportive, du Pont’s mercurial personality turns and he begins to lure Mark into an unhealthy lifestyle that threatens to undermine his training. Soon du Pont’s erratic behavior and cruel psychological game-play begin to erode the athlete’s already shaky self-esteem.
Meanwhile du Pont becomes fixated on Dave, who exudes the confidence both he and Mark lack, knowing that these are things even his money cannot buy. Fueled by du Pont’s increasing paranoia and alienation from the brothers, the trio is propelled towards a tragedy no one could have foreseen.
FOXCATCHER is a rich and moving story of brotherly love, misguided loyalty and the corruption and emotional bankruptcy that can accompany great power and wealth.
As with Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller’s previous feature films, CAPOTE and MONEYBALL, he explores large themes in society through his complex character portraits of real people.
FOXCATCHER opens in theaters on November 14, 2014.
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A little historical background on the family.
A vast dynasty of industrial enterprise and wealth, the du Pont family has one of the oldest and most prestigious legacies in American history.
The family traces its origins to France in the late eighteenth century. Pierre du Pont, one of the family’s oldest known relatives, was a confidante to King Louis XVI; his son, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, was an apprentice to Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, a man considered to be the father of modern chemistry. At a time when the French were known for making the best gunpowder in the world, Eleuthère Irénée was able to learn the fine points of its manufacturing. Unfortunately, the
French Revolution cut short Eleuthère Irénée’s apprenticeship, and he fled France for America with Pierre and the rest of the DuPont family in October of 1799.
Soon after Eleuthère Irénée’s arrival in the United States, he became aware of the poor quality of the gunpowder being manufactured there. Seeing an opportunity, he opened his own black gunpowder mill in Wilmington, Delaware along Brandywine Creek in 1802. Applying his sophisticated knowledge of the manufacturing process, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont created a product that would impact the course of United States history for nearly two hundred years.
Eleuthère Irénée saw great success with the DuPont Company (while the family name is du Pont, the company is now referred to as DuPont) in his lifetime, but he also experienced tragedy when a series of explosions killed numerous workers at the mill in 1818.
When rapidly accumulating debts put DuPont’s future at risk, Eleuthère Irénée’s son, Alfred Victor, took over the leadership of the company. Unfortunately Alfred lacked the skills to save the company and after a decade of his management, DuPont was more than half a million dollars in debt. At this point, Henry du Pont, Alfred’s younger brother and Eleuthère Irénée’s youngest son, was asked to step in.
Henry was a West Point graduate and he immediately applied the discipline and leadership skills he learned there to provide fiscal stability for the company. As the DuPont Company stabilized under his guidance, Henry’s nephew and Alfred’s son Lammot du Pont emerged as a new force. Lammot was a gifted chemist with an impressive knack for business who at the age of 27 invented a new form of blasting powder.
Working together, Henry and Lammot were responsible for the company’s great successes in the late 1800s, when they were able to capitalize on the huge demand for their munitions resulting from the Civil War, as well as the railroad expansion in the American West. DuPont would go on to be the largest supplier of military explosives for the U.S. in the First World War and later become the creator of Nylon, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar and Lycra.
The du Pont family’s steadfast commitment to hard work has resulted in a dynasty and fortune unrivaled in American history.
Today the du Pont name stands for a global company that has been on the leading edge of technological innovation for over two centuries.
The DuPont Company is currently valued at fifty billon dollars and serves more than seventy countries around the world.
John Eleuthère du Pont was the great-great-grandson of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont.
