Mark Wahlberg Bonds with a Stray Dog Under Extreme Circumstances in “Arthur the King” Trailer (Exclusive)

Mark Wahlberg's new movie 'Arthur the King' is based on the 2017 book 'Arthur: The Dog Who Crossed The Jungle To Find A Home'

Mark Wahlberg plays a remarkable athlete who meets an even more remarkable dog in his next movie, Arthur the King. PEOPLE has the exclusive first look at the trailer.

The new movie, based on Swedish extreme athlete and author Mikael Lindnord's 2017 book Arthur: The Dog Who Crossed The Jungle To Find A Home, stars Wahlberg, 52, as Lindnord (named Michael Light in the film), who met his four-legged companion Arthur while taking part in an adventure racing competition.

Arthur the King's trailer sees Michael as he and his teammate (Simu Liu) prepare for a major endurance race through the Dominican Republic. As Michael's wife and daughter trace his journey, he twice meets the same stray dog hundreds of miles apart. The dog even appears to save his life by barking at him just before he would have walked off the edge of a cliff.

Inspired by the dog's seemingly impossible journey across the race's path to keep up with him, Michael and his team take in the pooch, name him "Arthur the King" and make him their mascot en route to an inspiring finish.

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In real life, the film's subject Lindnord spent six years living with Arthur after he met the dog during a 2014 championship adventure race in Ecuador, per a 2016 ESPN story on the pair. Lindnord announced Arthur's death in a 2020 Instagram post, writing that the dog's "life was bigger than life itself and I still see and hear you everywhere in the house."

"Arthur became a part of our family right from when he entered our front door to the house," Lindnord tells PEOPLE in a statement about the movie, recalling that the dog "slept the whole night like he [had] lived with us forever" when he first brought Arthur back to Sweden.

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"Arthur´s beautiful soul touched many people and for us in the family he was the best family member you could dream about," the author adds. "He was like a guardian angel to our kids."

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"I've now been fortunate enough to work with Mark on two movies," director Simon Cellan Jones, who also directed Wahlberg in the upcoming Apple TV+ film The Family Plan, tells PEOPLE in a statement. "They were totally different projects and experiences, but they had one thing in common - Mark was a joy to work with on both!"

"On [The Family Plan], he happily broke the rule about working with children. Now, thanks to Mikael's amazing book, he's acting opposite an inspiring canine," Jones adds of the "incredible range" Wahlberg brings to his roles. "Believe me, you are going to love the relationship between Mark and Arthur."

Aside from Wahlberg and Liu, the new movie's cast also includes Juliet Rylance, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ali Suliman, and Paul Guilfoyle. Lionsgate presents in association with eOne, a Tucker Tooley Entertainment / Mark Canton / Municipal Pictures production.

Arthur the King releases in theaters March 22, 2024.

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