Variety reports Foxx will lace up the gloves as Tyson in a film written by Terence Winter, the scribe behind The Wolf of Wall Street and HBO's The Sopranos. So there's already a lot of heavyweight talent behind this one, although it's unknown at this point which part of Tyson's life will be explored. He grew up in Brooklyn and lived a life of crime and violence until he was placed in the care of trainer Cus D'Amato, who taught him to channel that rage in the squared circle. Of course it didn't always work and Tyson was known to have a violent temper in and out of the ring. Everybody remembers the infamous ear biting incident against Evander Holyfield, but Tyson was also accused of domestic abuse by his first wife and went to jail for rape in 1991.
This wouldn't be Foxx's first time in a movie based on the sweet science of boxing, either. He co-starred opposite Will Smith in Ali, playing corner man Drew Bundini Brown. Whatever period of Tyson's life they choose to look at it should prove to be exciting. Right now there isn't a major studio involved but given HBO's association with Winter and past interest in Tyson's story (they did a movie titled Tyson and aired his one-man show, not to mention his Entourage appearances) they could be a possible destination.
