I just saw The Fighter last night. I loved it. I thought it was an excellent film. It made me wonder, how come some other boxers with incredibly fascinating lives have not had a movie done about them yet? I've seen The Great White Hope, and Dempsey, but I'm talking about a REAL high budget film, similar to the quality of the Ward film. Imagine Johnson walking down to the ring with a huge smile on his face while thousands of angry white mobs in the crowd are shouting at him with angry faces. That would be such an incredible opening scene. There needs to be great movies done for John L Sullivan, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey. I mean if they can make such a compelling story from a Boston fighter and his drug addicted brother, think about what they can do with a life like Jim Jeffries, or Sugar Ray Robinson. I think one problem is the challenge of finding a person who knows all his facts to write a great story. It's a weird mix so to speak. I definitely think theres some capable members here though. Has anyone tried writing one themselves? If you were a big time producer, which boxer would you do a movie on?
There are a few i would really enjoy to see a movie on. Monzon would probably top the list. What a life , what a story to be told.
I would love to see a proper one on the Ali-Liston II fight in Lewiston, Maine. Not just the 'Phantom Punch', but complete, with lead-up to the fight, the whole 'Myth, Mystery, and Misconception' Really, the fight nobody wanted.......
Yes definitely Monzon because the story transcends boxing. It's surprising that no excellent biography exists on the man as the story outside of boxing is just as compelling.
Good thread. That would be an excellent opening scene- and I think in these times, a movie with such a strong racial theme would do well. The problem is that any producers or money-backers would feel the need to "hollywodize" it, compromising the accuracy of the truth, even if the truth is good an compelling enough... I wish Hollywood would embrace and pursue making movies about great boxers like they have with comic book characters. By now I think they've covered about every one... Johnson would definitely be one to make.
Here's a fan made trailer of my rejected script for Rocky IV. Clearly, Stallone stole a ton of my dialouge but changed the context. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH3n0uEF0PQ[/ame]
I wrote a lengthy story based on Jerry Quarry's comeback fight in the early 90's... but even writing a fictional account bummed me out too much.
I hate boxing movies because of their lack of realism and their Rockesque bullshitt bravado and the need for every final scene to finish in the ring, too predictable and boring. The best boxers wouldn't always make the best stories, because allot of their lives are pretty boring, also we know the stories too well of but the top ones. The boxers who'd make the best biopics would include: Schmelling Jack Johnson Jonny Tapia Monzon Sam Langford Max Baer Tyson (providing it has real stories we don't know about) But we all know Hollywood would *******ise the biopic and turn it into Rocky 6.5
I have some SNV/Holyfield fanfic stored in the vaults somewhere... it's actually pretty similar to "Brokeback Rocky" though.
Over the span of 6 monthes last year I wrote an 80 page draft of a screenplay for a Bobby Chacon movie. I've never believed it would ever get picked up let alone produced but I just thought he has such a compelling life story that deserves to be told and I really enjoyed writing. That's probably why I never bothered to edit and really make a run at getting it sold. Bobby life is literally made for a movie. My script focused began with Bobby as a prospect leading up to his huge fight with rival Danny Lopez and his relationship with Valerie. The first act closes with his knockout of Alfredo Mercano to win the title. The second act focuses on Bobby's subsequent decline including the second Olivares loss, losing to Boza Edwards and Valerie's suicide. The third act details Bobby's struggle to cope with his loss while preparing for his fourth fight with bitter rival Bazooka Limon and rematch win over Boza Edwards. Throughout writing the script I was really torn about how it end the story. On one hand I though it would be good to end with his redemptive wins over Limon and Boza. On the other I thought was to conventional and to poppy. And it didn't seem to reflect who Bobby Chacon really was. I always thought about doing a differant ending about Chacn second personal decline and drug abuse and dementia but that was just a ****ing downer to write even it seemed like artistic integrity, but something that sad just seemed too depressing to EVER get made.
