After several years of starring in one movie a year, Will Smith is stepping up his output. With one scheduled for release next month, it was announced that his next film, Concussion, is set for Christmas Day.
Based on Jeanne Marie Laskas‘ 2009 GQ article “Game Brain,” writer-director Peter Landesman (Parkland) has Smith playing Dr. Bennet Omalu, a real-world forensic neuropathologist whose research has helped bring attention to the concussions that occurs with NFL players and the effects that it has on them after their playing days are over.
The story takes a look at how American football players suffer from major head injuries and life-long debilitating problems as a result of repeated concussions and efforts by the National Football League (NFL) to deny it.
The film stars Smith, Albert Brooks, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Paul Reiser, Luke Wilson and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as former NFL safety Dave Duerson, a three-time Pro Bowl pick who died in 2011 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.
Smith will be seen next in the heist drama, Focus, which opens on February 27, 2015.
Concussion is will open on December 25, 2015.