“You don’t really connect with people very well,” a young Marine is told near the beginning of this new trailer for Megan Leavey, a bit of foreshadowing that gets to the heart of this true-life story. Leavey, played by Kate Mara, is the former U.S. Marine corporal and Iraq War vet who completed more than 100 missions with combat dog Rex before both were injured in a 2006 IED explosion.
Leavey received a Purple Heart and was honorable discharged after her recovery, while Rex was kept on active duty. Leavey spent the next five years fighting to adopt the dog even while Rex was scheduled to be euthanized after developing a palsy.
The trailer combines a tense when-will-it-go-off bomb-thriller vibe – be warned: it does – with the heartwarming elements expected from the genre. Starring alongside Mara are Edie Falco, Ramón Rodríguez, Bradley Whitford and Common, with Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Blackfish) directing from a screenplay by Pamela Gray and Annie Mumolo & Tim Lovestedt.
Giving a shout out to Bleecker Street’s president of marketing and creative advertising Myles Bender and Open Road Entertainment in Burbank for putting together the heart-tugging trailer. At Open Road, Richard Redfield was the creative director, Nick Goodman and Bill Gustafson were the editors, the music super was Mike Lynn, copywriter Luke McClure and the graphic designer was Krystal Sojourner.
Bleecker Street releases the PG-13 film June 9. Take a look at the trailer above.
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