If “The Fighter” gains some serious traction this Oscar season, expect more boxing pics in development to start getting more heat — and it looks like one is already attracting some major talent.
Gael Garcia Bernal is now attached to play famed Panamanian boxer Robert Duran in a film that will tell the “inside story” about the legendary “No Mas” boxing match against Sugar Ray Leonard. The two boxers and longtime rivals met on November 25, 1980 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans for the second bout against each other in their career. Duran had won the their first encounter seven months earlier in April thanks to a close, but unanimous decision by ringside officials. This match however, would end far more theatrically, with Duran telling the referee in the eighth round “”No Mas” (“no more” in Spanish) leading to technical knockout victory for Leonard. Duran become persona non grata in his native country after the match and it took years for him to rebuild his stature in the country.
The proposed film would be written, directed and produced by Venezuelan helmer Jonathan Jakubowicz and Al Pacino has shown interest in the film, circling the role of trainer Ray Arcel.
The film is not yet greenlit, but producer Ben Silverman (“MacGruber,” “The Office“) does believe the project has a lot of potential saying, “This is a big opportunity. The Latin American population over-indexes in terms of sports and boxing. There’s a lot of momentum around the script that Jonathan wrote.” And certainly, it sounds like a classic boxing tale tailor-made for splashy big screen version. We’ll see how this plays out, meanwhile check out some footage from the “No Mas” match below. [The Wrap]