'Boys in the Boat' trailer finally arrives, giving a peek into the big screen adaptation

Ten years after the best-selling book "The Boys in the Boat" was first published, the story will be told on the big screen, just in time for Christmas 2023. The trailer was released this week, providing a peek into the long-anticipated movie.

RELATED: How this 'boy in the boat' overcame hardship, beat the Nazis and won Olympic gold

The book by Daniel James Brown about a University of Washington rowing team that went to the 1936 Olympic Games, immediately received a lot of attention. It quickly led to a PBS documentary, and garnered enough praise that George Clooney stepped up to produce and direct the film adaptation. It was a long journey to get this true story from the page to the camera. Filming eventually began in 2022.

"The Boys in the Boat" is being released on Christmas Day, which is an awkward choice. Sure, it's a holiday, but you'd think someone in marketing would have the foresight to release it at least a week before. You want to lean into that market of families gathering but avoiding talking to each other. There's a whole weekend to kill before Christmas, and someone is bound to ruin things by talking about politics or the Mac vs PC debate. This is why holiday movies are so important.

Leading up to Christmas, gathered families looking for an escape will be left to debate between "Candy Cane Lane" and "Wonka," a musical. The family nerd will suggest "Godzilla Minus One," but will be quickly voted down. Someone will bring up "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," which will stop everybody in their tracks, prompting the questions: "They made a sequel to 'Aquaman'? Why? What about that first film made them ever consider that? Will DC never learn anything?!" Eventually, they'll settle on the feel-good historical drama that can please everybody, which families have been agreeing to ever since "Rudy."

While readers were introduced to this feel-good history in 2013, when Brown's book was published, UW athletes have been well aware of it for many years.

The Husky Clipper, the boat that those boys were in, still hangs in the dining hall for the UW crew team. Every new freshman on the team is required to memorize the rowers' names, and know their story.

They also know the name of George Pocock, the man who built the famous boat.

“When you say 'Pocock' here, it’s almost the spirit of the boathouse, the spirit of rowing," UW head rowing coach Michael Callahan told KUOW in 2016. "We would not be the same program without it.”

Read more about that story here.

As for the big screen version of this legend, we'll all have to wait until Christmas. In the meantime, if you need that historical sports fix, "Rudy" is streaming, as is "Seabiscuit," "Remember the Titans," "Invincible," "Hoosiers," "Miracle," and "Cool Runnings."

(To be fair, another biographical film,"Ferrari," and the musical "The Color Purple" are also being released on Dec. 25.)