Movie fans now have their first look at “Gunner,” an action movie that was filmed in the Birmingham area in spring 2023. Actors Morgan Freeman and Luke Hemsworth are prominently featured a trailer released this week by Warner Bros., along with fist fights, gun battles, explosions and a prison escape. (Watch the trailer in the video above.)
Viewers in Alabama will recognize a major Birmingham landmark in the trailer, as well. Sloss Furnaces shows up at the 1:11 mark in the video, and the historic ironworks is featured several times throughout the rest of the clip.
Freeman plays a laid-back drug lord named Kendrick Ryker in “Gunner,” directed by Dimitri Logothetis and written by the director with Gary Scott Thompson of “The Fast and the Furious” fame. Hemsworth portrays the title character, Lee Gunner, a skilled military veteran who butts heads with Ryker’s drug cartel after Gunner’s two sons are kidnapped during a fishing trip.
The cast also includes Joseph Baena (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son) and Alabama’s Grant Feely, who appeared in Disney’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series.
Several locations in the Birmingham metro area were used during the filming of “Gunner” in spring 2023, including Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park in McCalla and Watermark Place, a former outlet center in Bessemer. Watermark Place was used as a headquarters and soundstage for the film, and Freeman shot most of his scenes there, Logothetis said in a 2023 interview with AL.com.
The director also predicted that Freeman’s performance would be a highlight of the film. “I like my bad guy characters to be likable,” Logothetis said. “I don’t think you can get any more likable than Morgan Freeman. He just has such a warmth about him.”
READ: ‘Gunner’ director on filming in ‘incredible’ Birmingham for Morgan Freeman movie
Director Dimitri Logothetis, left, filmed an action movie, “Gunner,” in the Birmingham area in 2023. Filming took place from late March to mid-April, with a cast that included Morgan Freeman and Luke Hemsworth. (Photo by Anastasia Mikhaylova)
Freeman, 87, is an extremely relaxed bad guy in the trailer for “Gunner,” keeping his cool even when threatened by the intense hero. The drug lord’s son has Gunner’s kids, as it turns out, and Gunner wants to make sure they stay alive and well.
“If he hurts my boys, I’m going to kill you and kill everyone you know,” Hemsworth’s character says.
“Whoa, that’s a lot of killing for one man,” Freeman wryly responds as Ryker. The kingpin evidently doesn’t see Gunner as much of an adversary, but the action-packed trailer proves otherwise.
“Gunner” is set for release on Aug. 16 via digital streaming platforms and in select theaters, according to IMDb.
