Rachel Morrison’s “The Fire Inside,” which was already pushed to August 9, 2024, has again been delayed and will now be coming out on December 25. This film is such a mess.
Originally titled “Flint Strong,” the film was written by “Moonlight” helmer Barry Jenkins. Morrison is a cinematographer known for her work on “Mudbound” and “Black Panther.” In 2016, Universal hired Jenkins to adapt the documentary “T-Rex.” Three years later, Morrison hopped onboard as director.
The film started production in early 2020 and was halted in March when COVID shut down production. Universal offloaded the film a year later, only for MGM to pick it up. In October 2021, actor Ice Cube was let go of his services after he refused to be vaccinated for COVID-19. Filming finally resumed in 2022. It then poorly test-screened in October of 2022, and consequently had reshoots done in November of that year.
This release date of December 2025 is an indicator that maybe MGM/Amazon want to give the film a similar treatment as their 2023 sleeper hit, “The Boys in the Boat,” which was also a sports-themed film.
“The Fire Inside” tackles the true story of Claressa "T-Rex" Shields as she trains to box in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Shields was recently ranked as the world's best active female middleweight by BoxRec, as well as the second-best active female boxer, pound for pound, by ESPN.
The cast of “The Fire Inside” includes Brian Tyree Henry, Judy Greer and Ryan Destiny as Shields. As mentioned, it’s coming out on Christmas Day which is just 7 days after Jenkins’ “Mufasa” gets released by Disney.