It appears that not content with fighting in Mission: Impossible and The Avengers, Jeremy Renner wants to hit some people very hard, as Deadline reports that he’s attached to star in a biopic of legendary boxer Rocky Marciano.
Advertisement
There have been other attempts at making Marciano’s story into a film, mostly recently a 1999 TV movie for Showtime starring Jon Favreau. The two writers behind last year’s Black List script Mayday 109 are writing the Rocky Marciano biopic with Morris S. Levy producing by way of his Mega Films banner, who owns the rights to Marciano’s life story by way of his brother Lou Marciano.
Marciano was a world-renowned boxer and heavyweight champ who held the title from 1952 to 1956, and remains the only boxer to retire undefeated in his class, carrying a record of 49-0.
Yet Hollywood hasn’t produced that many great boxing movies portraying real-life fighters. From DeNiro in Raging Bull, to Will Smith in Ali, and Michael B. Jordan in the recent Rocky spin-off Creed, actors have long looked to boxing films as a way to stretch their chops.
The film will follows Marciano’s life from childhood until his death in a plane crash in 1969.
Advertisement
Featuring a screenplay by Samuel Franco and Evan Kilgore (Butterflies of Bill Baker), Undefeated: The Rocky Marciano Story is now searching for a director. Though Rocky Marciano was one of the most effective boxers of his time, he wasn’t buffed-up.
