Hollywood LOVES Mike Tyson's story, both his time inside the ring and out. He's been profiled numerous times and been part of documentaries, but a true big screen biopic hasn't happened just yet. That began to change last year when Jamie Foxx came aboard to play the former heavyweight boxing champion in a film written by The Wolf of Wall Street's Terrence Winter. Not that anybody was going to openly question Tyson to his face, but his claims that Martin Scorsese would be involved didn't draw a ton of attention. Well, turns out the champ wasn't messing around.
Foxx revealed during a radio interview (via Uproxx) that Scorsese would indeed be directing him in the Mike Tyson biopic, and it's a move that makes all the sense in the world.
Foxx: "I just went in with Paramount with Mike Tyson. So I’m going to do the Mike Tyson story. Listen, to be in the same room pitching Mike Tyson to Paramount, Mike Tyson is on one side, I’m on the other side and doing Mike Tyson at the same time. And Martin Scorsese at the helm. This will be the first boxing movie that Martin Scorsese has done since Raging Bull."
Having grown up in the mean streets of Brooklyn, Tyson's story should fit Scorsese perfectly. Tyson previously said that performance capture technology would allow Foxx to play him in all the stages of his life, similar to Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Hopefully that plan is still in place. I'm smelling Academy Award all over this one.
