Michael Shannon Teaches Us How to Be a Team

Vertical Entertainment has just released their trailer for Heart of Champions. Watch Coach Murphy (Michael Shannon) teach a disjointed group of young men how to rely on each other and forge an unbeatable team. Row! Row! Row!

“I’m your new coach, Coach Murphy. You are gonna learn something that can’t be taught in a book or a classroom out on that river. You will learn how to be a team.” Coach Murphy (Michael Shannon) has returned to his college to make a group of individuals into a well oiled machine. He’s got his work cut out for him.

The official synopsis reads, “After finishing last in the national championship, a college rowing team descends into turmoil and constant infighting between team leaders Alex (Alexander Ludwig), Chris (Charles Melton), and John (Alex MacNicoll). A tough Army veteran, Coach Murphy (Michael Shannon), arrives at the start of the new season to transform the status quo and unlock their true potential. Using his experience and unconventional methods to help them overcome petty rivalries and personal challenges, Coach Murphy must inspire these young men to learn what it takes to be a team before they can be champions.”

The cast includes Michael Shannon, who can currently be seen in Nine Perfect Strangers, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Alex MacNicoll, Ash Santos with Lilly Krug and David James Elliott. was written by Vojin Gjaja and directed by Michael Mailer.

Mailer’s next project, Cutman, has Lenny Kravitz returning to the film world to tell the story of two broken souls who find each other at a desolate East Texas motel. They find revenge and redemption. But what neither of them expected was a tough little girl would link their fates and shape the rest of their short, tortured lives. Maggie Q, Renée Willett and Nickola Shreli have joined the cast.

Michael Shannon’s next project, Shriver, is nearly completed. It looks like a gas! A handyman living in New York City is mistaken for a famous and famously reclusive writer and brought to a university where he is to deliver a keynote address. The cast includes Peyton List (Cobra Kai), Wendie Malick (The Emperor’s New Groove), Kate Hudson (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), Jimmi Simpson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Zach Braff (Oz the Great and Powerful), Don Johnson (Django Unchained), and M. Emmet Walsh (The Righteous Gemstones). This will be Michael Maren’s second outing directing.

This is Maren’s second career. Michael Maren is a former Peace Corps volunteer, aid worker, and war correspondent. All told, he spent seventeen years in Africa covering wars and famines in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and other hot spots on the continent. In 1999, after the publication of his book about Somalia and foreign aid, ‘The Road to Hell,’ he began working as a screenwriter. He sold scripts to HBO, Sony and independent producers. This will be his second comedy feature film. Vertical Entertainment’s Heart of Champions will premiere in theaters October 29 and on VOD November 19.

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