First Image of Jake Gyllenhaal in 'Southpaw'

The first images has been released for the upcoming boxing drama Southpaw, revealing the body transformation of Jake Gyllenhaal for the starring role. As I understand, this film has been in the works for a long time and at one point had Eminem attached to star. Antoine Fuqua is directing from a script written by Kurt Sutter. The story of the film is said to revolve around a left-handed boxer who wins a title but goes through multiple tragedies in his personal life, while at the same time trying to win back the love of his daughter.

What stands out from the image is obviously the physical transformation that Gyllenhaal went through, specially after seeing him very slim for his role in Nightcrawler. The actor reportedly gained 15 pounds of muscle and this image really shows it. I honestly hadn't heard about this film before I read about it when this image came out, but now I am interested in it. The Fighter really got me into boxing dramas and if this is anything like that quality-wise then I am all in, not to mention that Jake Gyllenhaal has been giving some great performances recently. Southpaw will also star Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker, Naomie Harris, Victor Ortiz, and 50 Cent, the film is expected to hit theaters sometime in 2015. Check out the image below (via Deadline).