Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg will be teaming up again after the success of The Departed, this time for a true story boxing movie called The Fighter. The good people over at yahoo.com give us the scoop:
Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon, who teamed up as cops in “The Departed,” are set to reunite as brothers in the boxing saga “The Fighter.” …”I’ve been dying to do a boxing movie my whole career,” one-time street fighter Wahlberg said in a recent interview. “I’ve been close to doing two, and they kinda fell apart, but it’s something I’m very excited about”.
Here is the story breakdown:Based on the life of boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and his trainer brother Dick Eklund (Damon), the Paramount Pictures project chronicles their early days on the rough streets of Lowell, Mass., through Eklund’s battle with drugs and Ward’s eventual world championship.
These two men are great for a film like this. They are both gritty, not pretty and with Wahlberg’s history of street fighting and old rough and tumble days like he is going to have a lot to draw from. Now a story about a boxer’s like has been done quite a bit in recent year, Cinderella Man, Ali, The Hurricane, but when you think about it, they were all good. I watched all three of the recent boxing movies at the theater and I’m still game for another one. Maybe it’s because I’m a boxing fan, or maybe it’s the rags to riches stories that are just so nice to see.
The film has talent, and the writer is hard at work making it a strong script, now it will rest with the director and cinematographer. Who would make a good director? Steven Spielberg hasn’t done a boxing movie yet, or perhaps Sam Raimi (he certainly can do action). As for cinematography the only person who I know would be perfect is Antonio Calvache (Little Children), he is one of the most talented people behind the camera today.
Whoever the final players are I think this film has a good chance of being a success, both cinematically and financially.
