We’ve had a reasonable amount of news for you over the months regarding the less than smooth development of Eminem-starring boxing project, “Southpaw”. Dreamworks were on board, but have now dropped out and although Summit have expressed interest, an MGM-Sony joint venture now seems to have thrown its hat in.
From a script by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, Antoine Fuqua should still direct this tale of the rise, fall and rise of a welterweight boxer. Sutter describes it as a metaphorical biopic for Eminem’s recent life, following on from 8 Mile, but translating Eminem’s struggles from a rapping career to one in the ring:-
“In a way, this is a continuation of the 8 Mile story, but rather than a literal biography, we are doing a metaphorical narrative of the second chapter of his life. He’ll play a world champion boxer who really hits a hard bottom, and has to fight to win back his life for his young daughter. At its core, this is a retelling of his struggles over the last five years of his life, using the boxing analogy. I love that the title refers to [Eminem] being a lefty, which is to boxing what a white rapper is to hip hop; dangerous, unwanted and completely unorthodox. It’s a much harder road for a southpaw than a right-handed boxer.”
With MGM producing and Sony distributing, their joint bid is said to be the front runner. It would be good to see this project get some traction and move forward into production, but for the time being we will have to be patient.
