Everyone loves a good underdog story. Nothing brings people together quite like watching someone work hard in order to do great things against all odds. The best underdog stories are often sports movies. Is it easier to dramatize the struggle someone goes through if it involves working out and extreme physical activity? The answer seems to be yes!

Underdog movies are frequently fiction, simply because they don’t actually happen out in the real world as often as we'd like. People persevere against difficult odds all the time, but most of these successes aren't dramatic enough to serve as the backbone for a movie.

That’s what makes AMERICAN UNDERDOG: THE KURT WARNER STORY so special. It adheres to all these tropes but has the benefit of being a true story. Whose true story? Kurt Warner! Who is Kurt Warner? An American Underdog! See? It’s all right there in the title! Let’s dig a little deeper into this movie to see what else it might have to offer.

If you were going to release a heartwarming and true rags-to-riches story for the entire family to enjoy, what release date would you want most? That’s right, you would aim for Christmas. And that’s exactly what the distributor of AMERICAN UNDERDOG: THE KURT WARNER STORY has done. The movie hits theaters on December 25, Christmas Day.

And ruin the surprise of how great the film looks this early? No way!

All joking aside, AMERICAN UNDERDOG: THE KURT WARNER STORY does not have a full trailer yet. There is, however, the eye-opening behind-the-scenes featurette embedded just above, which gives you a pretty good idea of what the movie is all about.

As mentioned above, it’s all right there in the title! Okay, maybe you need a bit more information after all. Here it goes. AMERICAN UNDERDOG: THE KURT WARNER STORY tells the incredible true story of football player Kurt Warner. Unlike many players who win championships in high school, then excel as champions in college before being champions in the NFL, Kurt Warner’s path was different.

Warner started from much more humble beginnings, stocking groceries at his local grocery store while other future pros were drinking champagne in limousines with Burt Reynolds. (Insert a modern cultural equivalent to Burt Reynolds here if you'd like.)

How Warner got from the grocery store to the gridiron is basically the story AMERICAN UNDERDOG: THE KURT WARNER STORY intends to tell. So don’t go spoiling it for yourself ahead of time.

AMERICAN UNDERDOG: THE KURT WARNER STORY is filled with familiar faces sure to please the whole family. Let’s start at the top with the actor playing Kurt Warner himself. That's SHAZAM!’s Zachary Levi, who is clearly ready to transfer all his superhero muscles to a football player.

The film also features X-MEN’s Anna Paquin, quintessential football actor Dennis Quaid, FULL METAL JACKET co-star Adam Baldwin, and Bruce McGill, famous for his brief role in Michael Mann’s THE INSIDER.

AMERICAN UNDERDOG: THE KURT WARNER STORY actually has TWO directors, Andrew and Jon Erwin, otherwise known as the Erwin Brothers. Together they’ve made several other films such as OCTOBER BABY, MOM’S NIGHT OUT, WOODLAWN, I CAN ONLY IMAGINE, and I STILL BELIEVE.

American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story opens on Christmas Day!

All images courtesy of Lionsgate.