Jamie Foxx Will Play Mike Tyson in a New Biopic
Mike Tyson is one of the most controversial and bizarre figures to emerge out of the sports world in the past few decades, so it's not surprising that a biopic about his life is finally being made. What is slightly surprising is the amount of talent backing the project. Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx signed on to play the former boxing heavyweight champion, and Terrence Winter, fresh off an Oscar nomination for writing 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' is set to pen the script.
The news comes via Variety, who reports that Foxx's manager Rick Yorn is producing the project.
There's an entire generation of people who only know Tyson as the weirdo with the face tattoo who popped up in the 'Hangover' movies, but before he was a walking joke, he was one of the most terrifying men you could possibly face in the boxing ring. Heck, he was one of the most terrifying men you could possibly face outside of the boxing ring, and his myriad crimes eventually caught up with him and put him in prison for six years. There's plenty of cinematic potential here: one of the most talented boxers in the world ultimately self-destructs and becomes more famous for biting off a chunk of his opponent's ear than actually being a skilled fighter.
This is an interesting role for Foxx, who won an Oscar for another biopic, 'Ray,' nearly a decade ago. It's also not his first brush with a sports movie -- he played Mohammad Ali's cornerman in 'Ali' and starred as a professional football player in 'Any Given Sunday.' However, the real key to this project might be Winter, who is perhaps best known as the mastermind of HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire.' Few writers are as skilled as him at creating sympathetic and fascinating lowlifes, so he's the perfect guy to write a movie about Mike Tyson.
The film doesn't have a director or a distributor yet, but this is not the kind of project that slips through the cracks. We'll be hearing more about it soon.