After his performance in Bronson, you’d think Tom Hardy wouldn’t need anyone to teach him how to fight. But there are teachers, and then there’s Nick Nolte, who craps out more conflict knowledge on a daily basis than most of us will ever learn in a lifetime.
In Warrior, Nolte will train Hardy to compete in a mixed martial arts tournament. The backstory is weighty, and sadly on the nose: Nolte is a Vietnam vet, mill worker and ex boxer whose alcoholism has destroyed his family; he trains his son (Hardy) how to fight as a gesture of familial rebirth and remorse.
Gavin O’Conner (Pride and Glory) will direct the movie for Lionsgate; it begins shooing in Pittsburgh in April. Jennifer Morrison and Joel Edgerton are in the cast as well.