Nothing beats a sports weepie—and no one knows how to deliver one of those more than Angelo Pizzo, who wrote the classic, based-on-a-true-story tales of inspiration Hoosiers and Rudy. Despite the setting for Pizzo’s most famous films, though, cinema-worthy moments about overcoming adversity in life, as well as on the field of play, don’t just occur in Indiana—and in his directorial debut, he turns his attention to the 40 Acres, telling the story of former Longhorns safety Freddie Steinmark in the forthcoming My All-American.
Steinmark, of course, was a University of Texas student-athlete who faced serious medical issues and was forever immortalized at the school’s stadium near the beginning of the 1972 season, when the scoreboard was dedicated to him. And now, his memory lives on in the form of Pizzo’s film, the trailer for which was released this week. American Horror Story star Finn Wittrock plays Steinmark, and Aaron Eckhart stars as Darrell K. Royal, the coach who believed in the undersized defensive back. The film was shot in Texas, in both Austin and San Antonio, and hits theaters in November (just in time to make your dad cry over the holidays). The classic inspirational sports movie has fallen out of fashion in recent years, but My All-American looks like it’s set to scratch the itch right between Brian’s Song and Rudy.
