Just as Vince McMahon and the WWE were getting some distance from the terrible actions committed by Chris Benoit in 2007, a biopic on his life has just picked up steam by finally finding a director. Vicente Amorim (Good) has been tapped to helm Crossface, a film based on Matthew Randazzo's scathing book, Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit and the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry.
Benoit was once one of the wrestling industry's premiere talents, whose brutal, physical style earned him the names "The Canadian Crippler" and "The Rabid Wolverine". But over the course of his more than 20 year career, a combination of multiple concussions and excessive steroid abuse affected his brain, driving him into a rage that led to the murder of his wife and kids before taking his own life. The events were a black stain on the entire wrestling industry, but especially for the WWE which has fought hard to rebuild their Wellness Policy ever since.
Production on Crossface begins early next year, and it'll be interesting to see who is found to play Benoit. The toll the wrestling profession exacts on its superstars has been explored with some depth in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, but this film would obviously carry considerably more weight, and is likely to ruffle a few feathers in the wrestling industry.
