'42' trailer: Baseball legend Jackie Robinson comes to life

One of the most instrumental figures in professional sports, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball when he signed with Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey in 1945, and started for the Dodgers in 1947 after a year in the minor leagues. Despite that monumental achievement only one feature film has been made about Robinson's life, 1950's The Jackie Robinson Story — starring Robinson as himself — until now.

Some 66 years after his first major league game, Robinson's story will return to the big screen on April 12, 2013, with Harrison Ford as the tenacious Rickey and relative unknown Chadwick Boseman as Robinson. In the new trailer for 42 — a reference to Robinson's uniform number — we get a good taste of the iconic sweep writer-director Brian Helgeland (Payback, A Knight's Tale) appears to be bringing to Robinson's story, as well as its the thematic focus.

"You want a player who doesn't have the guts to fight back?" Robinson says to Rickey.

"No," replies Rickey. "I want a player who's got the guts not to fight back."

Check out the trailer below:

Follow @adambvary

Read more:

Harrison Ford and Chadwick Boseman join Jackie Robinson movie

Baseball legend Hank Aaron getting biopic treatment with 'The Natural' director Barry Levinson