Back in August, news broke that Jamie Foxx that he would be playing Mike Tyson in an upcoming biopic. That project apparently just added a big load of ammunition.
During an appearance with “The Breakfast Club” on New York’s Power 105, Foxx said that he and Tyson had just taken a meeting at Paramount regarding the film and Martin Scorsese was set to be the director. Unless you want to hear Foxx talk about his upcoming single with Chris Brown, he gets into the Tyson stuff at the 7:55 mark.
https://youtu.be/YfbFtcBbHhU
“I just went in with Paramount with Mike Tyson. So I’m going to do the Mike Tyson story,” Foxx said. “Listen, to be in the same room pitching Mike Tyson to Paramount, Mike Tyson is on one side, I’m on the other side doing Mike Tyson at the same time. And Martin Scorsese at the helm. This will be the first boxing movie that Martin Scorsese has done since Raging Bull.'”
Scorsese’s interest in the film probably shouldn’t be a surprise, since he and screenwriter Terence Winter have collaborated on several projects, including 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire series. The two also teamed up with Mick Jagger to develop a new series for HBO set in the 1970s rock ‘n’ roll scene. But as Foxx mentioned, Scorsese doing another boxing film is a big deal. Raging Bull is regarded by many as the best sports movie of all time.
Will the film have the frantic, somewhat comedic edge to it that Wolf of Wall Street did, or will this deal more in heavy drama? Later in the radio interview, Foxx explained that he hung out with Tyson at a young age, getting a first-hand look at much of the era that their film will be covering. So some of Tyson’s wilder times will likely be a part of the story.
Additionally, Foxx mentioned that he’s bulked up to 205 pounds so far in his effort to resemble Tyson. When the project was originally announced, Tyson revealed that performance-capture technology, much like we’ve seen in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Captain America films, would be used for Foxx to play him when he was younger.
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