Which boxer would you like to see a movie about...

[gilgamesh]

Foreman would obviously make a great Hollywood script along with Hopkins. And Gatti would be a good follow-up to 'The Fighter' in some ways. Since they didn't cover his wars with Gatti in that movie they could cover them in this movie thus making the movie about Gatti a sequel in a sense. Of course Ward would need to be portrayed in a similar way as Ward was in the movie about him, perhaps even Wahlberg would go along with whoever played Gatti to make the movie a true boxing epic spanning two films, but I doubt it. Hollywood doesn't know how to make a good movie these days, usually.

[Brutu]

hey syntax,
you may want to also check out a documentery that also came out
in 1970 entitled
JACK JOHNSON.
It was produced by Bill Cayton and directed by Jim Jacobs
with an original jazz score by Miles Davis,
narrated by Brock Peters as the voice of Jack Johnson.
This documentery was even nominated for an Academy Award
(back when that still meant something)
IMOP ,so much better then that PBS over rated crapola by Ken Burns.

[Syntax Error]

hey syntax,
you may want to also check out a documentery that also came out
in 1970 entitled
JACK JOHNSON.
It was produced by Bill Cayton and directed by Jim Jacobs
with an original jazz score by Miles Davis,
narrated by Brock Peters as the voice of Jack Johnson.
This documentery was even nominated for an Academy Award
(back when that still meant something)
IMOP ,so much better then that PBS over rated crapola by Ken Burns.

Thank you very much.

I love the story of Jack Johnson & I shall definitely check it out.

[Brutu]

hey syntax,
you may want to also check out a documentery that also came out
in 1970 entitled
JACK JOHNSON.
It was produced by Bill Cayton and directed by Jim Jacobs
with an original jazz score by Miles Davis,
narrated by Brock Peters as the voice of Jack Johnson.
This documentery was even nominated for an Academy Award
(back when that still meant something)
IMOP ,so much better then that PBS over rated crapola by Ken Burns.

Thank you very much.

I love the story of Jack Johnson & I shall definitely check it out.

I forgot to metion that I dont think I have ever seen the 1970 documentery even on VHS,
However I have seen it(or whole parts of the 1970 documentery
on ESPN Classic a few years ago.
Maybe Ken Burns had the Bill Cayton/Jim Jacobs
BIG FIGHTS version surpressed by his lawyers so no one would compare the two?
(or maybe its because of the Miles Davis score on it).

[marcianofan]

Norman Mailer (RIP) and Spike Lee wrote a script for a movie of Louis - Schmelling but it got canned

There's already a pretty decent movie about Louis and Schmeling called "Joe and Max." Stars Liev Schreiber [edit years later- it was Til Schweiger, not Liev Schreiber. I forgot they aren't the same guy]. Can't remember who plays Louis offhand.

This is premature, but if Amir Mansour manages to make some hay during the rest of his career and/or has a defining fight or two, he's got a movie script kind of life story in boxing.

I don't see the Foreman movie making sense right now because George and his legend are still so much with us. Valero might make a good film, though certainly not a crowd-pleaser. I agree that a Ketchel movie could be amazing. I think we're overdue for an authoritative Joe Louis biopic. Not that he hasn't been the subject of movies and documentaries, but nothing both comprehensive and cinematic yet.

I'd love to see a really well-produced film focusing on the Jack Johnson-Jim Jeffries fight, too. I know it was touched on in a fictionalized way in The Great White Hope, but I want something with at least "Cinderella Man"-level accuracy focusing on that fight and the lead up. Maybe it could start with Jeffries' retirement and follow him and Johnson through the end of the fight, but with the fight being the obvious focal point. I read a (very slightly) fictionalized book on the subject that was compelling and excellent several years back, though I can't remember the title.

And in general I'd like to see a movie or two that focus on old time boxing...1890s era and thereabouts. That was the best part of the movie "Far and Away," and I'd like to see a movie that makes it front and center.

Pancho Villa might make a decent subject, too.

[Brutu]

IMOP it must be the Miles Davis estate thats withholding the 1970 Jack Johnson documentery from being released on dvd.
Bill Cayton and Jim Jacobs had produced and directed another feature length documentery in 1970,entitled
aka Cassisus Clay.
I saw this when it was re-released at the cinema in 1975(in 35 mm).
It is also been available on vhs and dvd for a long time.

[Ric]

After some recent edits to the Pa, Ma, Young, and Herbert (Baby) Stribling Wiki pages this past week, and reacquainting myself with their amazing history, a movie about the Stribling Family as a whole would be nice.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Nipper Pat daly

[loudon]

Nipper Pat daly

Just been reading up on him.

Wow!

Over 100 fights, and had to retire at 17.

Unbelievable.

I'd love to see his biopic.


I've always wanted to see one on Harry Greb.

[writehooks]

1. George Chuvalo.
2. Luther McCarty.
3. Max Schmeling.

[jimglen]

I've read too many Boxing books and 'most' of them read the same and from a literary perspective they are often not that great, so if they can't grip as a book they will be less likely to be considered for films.

also too many known figures are presented in thread's like this whose career's need know more telling and don't or can't work either, i.e Ali, should have been a great film, a historical masterpiece, it wasn't and it was casted completely wrong in my opinion.

we don't need regurgitation of media superstars for these movies, we need stories with grit, honesty, pain and period realities in the storyline as well... great Human Interest stories.

for me movies made on the lives and career's and stories of
Lloyd Marshall,

the Globetrotting Canadian Sonny Jones, a perfect representation of Great fighter(S), who had it all, but just had to settle for what they got,

and of course Bert Gilroy's story is an automatic win, as it is loaded with Period Visualization, War, Corruption, National Pride and migrant 'outsider' families struggle for acceptance, recognition and survival, to say nothing of an absolutely frustrating & heartbreaking interfered with career.

Boxing Films for the wider General Public, who successful movies are suppose to target and not just boxing fans.

[Tony1244]

George Foreman and Joe Bugner - I agree.

[Kalan]

Jack Dempsey... I think he lived in an interesting period -- and dated movie starlets, and married one... He probably got a lot of head in his day.

Dempsey had a lot of distractions and did a lot of traveling and throwing tons of money around... That's why he took 2 years off and 3 years off between world title defenses... That's a lot of time off to fug around... He never did box that well -- so his dominance of the Heavyweight Division was rather interesting.

[wsbuf]

Bummy Davis
Barney Ross
Angelo Dundee

[Kalan]

Angelo Dundee never boxed... In fact a lot boxing trainers never boxed including Abel Sanchez... He was a roofer all his life but a big boxing fan... A lot of guys just start coaching in Boxing and for some reason they're successful.. It takes a lot of bluster and self belief.. I've never seen an successful Football, Basketball, Baseball, Tennis, Soccer, Golf, or Wrestling coach who never played.. but Boxing is loaded with them.

A lot of successful boxers suffer from major technical flaws because of poor coaching... but Boxing is the one sport where poor technique doesn't seem to be a major impediment to success.. I'd love to see a movie about Max Baer.. He was one of the worst technical boxers I've ever seen, but his fights with Max Schmeling and Joe Louis were box office magic.. Non-title fights that did a lot better than most title fights.

[jimglen]

Jack Dempsey... I think he lived in an interesting period -- and dated movie starlets, and married one... He probably got a lot of head in his day.

Dempsey had a lot of distractions and did a lot of traveling and throwing tons of money around... That's why he took 2 years off and 3 years off between world title defenses... That's a lot of time off to fug around... He never did box that well -- so his dominance of the Heavyweight Division was rather interesting.

he ruled because he was teak tough from a no bullshit era and background... here's the Dempsey movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd8IwxVHWf4

[Caractacus]

Thats Clay Hodges playing Jess Willard in that movie,so I bumped up the old thread
were it links to an interesting interview with him.