Has Mike Tyson parlayed the early success (Cannes love, good press, etc.) of his candid, sometimes- painful-to-watch self psychoanalysis (the upcoming James Toback documentary, “Tyson”) into a biopic about his life?
Sounds like it. The former heavyweight champion of the world would love Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx to play him in the story of his life if it comes to pass. Apparently he’s been talking about this idea and plan for over a year (and now that you mention it, it does sound vaguely familiar) and he tells MTV the project is close to happening.
“It’s gonna be [about me],” he told MTV News. “It’s gonna be Jamie Foxx portraying me in a life story. I don’t know [who might direct],” he said, but apparently Foxx is down (though to be fair, if Tyson bum rushes you in public and says, “hey, can you do this?!,” your answer is always an immediate yes and then you walk away as quickly as possible).
“Jamie discussed the things he wanted to do. He didn’t know which way he wanted to go, but it was something he wanted to do. He told me not to tell anybody [too much]. He’s just interested in doing it.”
“Tyson” hits theaters this Friday (April 24) in limited release (see the trailer here). Hopefully we have time to knock out a review before then, but overall it’s a pretty fascinating doc that you should probably see, boxing fan or not. You could certainly do a hell of a lot worse with about 80-90% of mainstream cinema these days (that 10-20% being “State Of Play,” at least in the past week).