Antoine Fuqua likes to keep busy. The Training Day, Shooter, and, most recently, Brooklyn’s Finest director has been attached to quite a large number of projects. As of late there is the Chinese epic and Tupac Shakur biopic to name a few. 24 Frames now reports that the director has left the latter film and will head into a different hip-hop area.
He is looking to direct Southpaw, the boxing drama from Kurt Sutter (who created the popular FX show Sons of Anarchy). Eminem, who hasn’t had a lead role since his praised 8 Mile nearly a decade ago, is attached to star. Southpaw, looking to shoot later this year, follows a “lefty welterweight whose life is buffeted by tragedy even as he’s fought his way to a title. Like 8 Mile, the film follows some of Marshall Mathers’ hardships.
I’m not quite sure about Eminem getting launched back into the spotlight, but if this could be a Wrestler-esque phenomenon, it could prove interesting. Then again, Fuqua doesn’t hold a candle to Darren Aronofsky, so those claims are a bit preliminary. With The Fighter, and sadly Real Steel (also from DreamWorks), boxing seems to be on an upswing in Hollywood. I’d rather see his 2Pac biopic, but if he can wrangle out another 8 Mile-level performance from Eminem, then it could be a knock-out (sorry, pun intended).
Do you want to see Fuqua direct Eminem in a boxing film?