For those with a good memory, Jamie Foxx playing Mike Tyson is way old news. "I’ve reached out to Mike, and I’ve been open about it," Foxx told MTV back in 2009. "I think that, of all the biopics that are out there, he has the most interesting story that no one has ever heard." The idea back then was that Taylor Hackford, who directed Foxx to his first Oscar win in 2005 for "Ray," would also helm the project. And as Hollywood is wont to do, there hasn’t really been much a peep since.
That’s changing, as “The Wolf of Wall Street” screenwriter/”Boardwalk Empire” showrunner and lead writer Terence Winter has been hired on to pen the script and the project looks like it has a new lease on life. No studio or director is attached as of now, but that could change fast.
Variety, who breaks the news, doesn’t say which era of Tyson’s career it would track, but obviously the former boxer is one of the most well-known and also infamous sports figures in history. Tyson savaged the boxing world at the tender age of 18 and at 20 became the youngest pugilist to ever become heavyweight champion. His career was then marred by an embarrassing loss to Buster Douglas, a rape conviction charge that landed him in prison for three years and then a comeback made ugly by an ear-biting incident with then champion Evander Holyfield. Tyson lost his boxing license shortly thereafter and while the fighter did box again, it was the beginning of the end of his sporting career.
Foxx won’t be a stranger to the boxing world in movies. The actor played Drew Bundini Brown, an assistant trainer and cornerman of Muhammad Ali, in Michael Mann‘s 2001 drama "Ali." No doubt, watching the action from the corner probably gave him the itch to step inside the ring.