Irish American director Gavin O’Connor is looking to match the Oscar award winning achievement of  “The Fighter“ about the life of Mickey Ward in his new film “Warrior’” due out in September.

Long Island-born director O’Connor, 47, is best known for his movie ‘Miracle’ which received great reviews.

Instead of two Boston suburb brothers feuding and making up as in “The Fighter”, O’Connor sets the scene in Pittsburgh, again in an Irish family, again with feuding brothers.

The movie is not about boxing but mixed martial arts, perhaps better known to some as cage fighting which has become enormously popular .

The saga of the Conlon brothers, Tommy and Brendan and their father Paddy played by Nick Nolte, is already receiving early Oscar buzz.

Tom Hardy amd Joel Edgerton play the two brothers, one, Brendan(Edgerton)  down on his luck, the other, Tommy. (Hardy)  a former marine  fleeing a tragic past.

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Hardy and Edgerton as well as Nolte are already lighting up the Hollywood Oscar gossip columns.

First  Showing.net stated “It would be cliched but completely appropriate to call this the Rocky of the modern MMA world and I hope that's the acclaim it continues to receive once it hits theaters this fall.

An Oscar campaign is unquestionably in order as well, as Nick Nolte and Tom Hardy (especially) should easily be able to secure at least a nomination for their phenomenal performances. “

Lionsgate who are releasing the film outlines the plot as follows “ Rising stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton command the screen as two estranged brothers facing the fight of a lifetime in Lionsgate’s WARRIOR, a moving, inspirational action drama from acclaimed director Gavin O’Connor (Miracle).

“Haunted by a tragic past, Marine Tommy Conlon (Hardy) returns home for the first time in fourteen years to enlist the help of his father (Nick Nolte) to train for Sparta, the biggest winner-takes-all event in mixed martial arts history.

A former wrestling prodigy, Tommy blazes a path toward the championship while his brother, Brendan (Edgerton), an ex-fighter-turned teacher, returns to the ring in a desperate bid to save his family from financial ruin. But when Brendan’s unlikely, underdog rise sets him on a collision course with the unstoppable Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront each other and the forces that pulled them apart, facing off in the most soaring, soul stirring, and unforgettable climax that must be seen to be believed.

It is “a rousing ode to redemption, reconciliation and the power of the human spirit,”the studio says.