News is circulating of an upcoming film about a bisexual boxer.
Director Lenny Abrahamson and producer Ed Guiney are the team that put together the Academy Award winning film Room and they want to work together again to create a film starring a bisexual man.
The two first announced their interest in the story in 2015, but news of it has been pretty thin since then.
The story would be a biopic of bisexual boxer Emile Griffith who's famous for his strength in the ring and infamous for the death of one of his opponents.
A world title match at Madison Square Garden happened in 1962 and the defender was Virgin Islander-turned-American boxer Emile Griffith. Cuban boxer Benny “The Kid” Paret supposedly called Griffith a “maricon” (meaning “faggot”) during the earlier weigh-in.
People think this resulted in Griffith going too far with Paret to the point that the competitor became unconscious. Problem is, the referee split the two up too late. Due to that, Paret was hospitalized and died 10 days later.
We don't know if that was Griffith's intention. What we do know is that now it's believed Paret died from earlier injuries that were made worse by the title fight. No matter what, Griffith earned the "killer" reputation from that day onwards.
As interesting of a character study and story as this movie may be however, we don’t actually know if it’s still in the works. Some sites state the film is in pre-production and assume it will come out in 2018 or 2019, and others, like IMDb, don’t mention the film at all.
In addition, there has been no real announcement from either Abrahamson or Guiney about the film. Honestly, we don’t know why this story has been trending on other gay sites.
That said, Abrahamson shared with deadline (2 years ago) his extreme interest in the story.
“As a character study, Griffith is incredibly compelling. There was a gentleness and innocence about him, and he never seemed conflicted about his sexuality; indeed he found joy in it. He inhabited two worlds – the underground gay scene in New York in the ‘60s and the macho world of boxing. The societal stigma at that time was dreadful and created a crushing pressure on him.”
We’re sure if there was enough public interest in it (and thus, financial backing), the two would jump to create the film.
As such, we decided to shine a spotlight on the possibility of this movie rather than just say it’s actually happening.
So, what do you think? Would you see this Emile Griffith biopic if it were to come out in theaters?
Real life is right before
Real life is right before your eyes! Norman Mailers sensationalist editorializing isn’t necessary. The referee should have stopped the fight as that is his job ! I would have killed the SOB too but don’t think that was Griffith’s intent at all ..not st all!