Bruce Willis has been selected to play legendary boxing trainer Cus D’Amato in the biopic Cornerman. The film is being written and directed by Rupert Friend, whose previous credits include Hitman: Agent 47, The Young Victoria, and The Death of Stalin. Friend and Aimée Mullins are producing for Circus Florist Films with Marc Butan and Ara Keshishian producing for MadRiver Pictures. Foreign sales are being handled this week in Cannes, with filming planned for sometime this Fall.
D’Amato has trained some high profile fighters including Floyd Patterson, José Torres and Mike Tyson, and was known for developing the Peek-a-Boo style. He was an amateur boxer when he was young, but never got a professional license. When D’Amato died in 1985, Patterson said, “There will never be another manager or person who cares about his fighters the way Cus did.”
The film will take place during the '80s in the Catskills, where he runs a small gym where he and his trainers, including former street-brawler Teddy Atlas, coach young contenders. The financial backer of the gym is pressuring D’Amato to find a real competitor when a friend of D'Amato's bring in Mike Tyson. D’Amato decides to take him in, attempting to turn hothead teen into the youngest-ever heavyweight world champion. A worldwide search is currently going on to find an actor who will play Tyson.
D’Amato has trained some high profile fighters including Floyd Patterson, José Torres and Mike Tyson, and was known for developing the Peek-a-Boo style. He was an amateur boxer when he was young, but never got a professional license. When D’Amato died in 1985, Patterson said, “There will never be another manager or person who cares about his fighters the way Cus did.”
The film will take place during the '80s in the Catskills, where he runs a small gym where he and his trainers, including former street-brawler Teddy Atlas, coach young contenders. The financial backer of the gym is pressuring D’Amato to find a real competitor when a friend of D'Amato's bring in Mike Tyson. D’Amato decides to take him in, attempting to turn hothead teen into the youngest-ever heavyweight world champion. A worldwide search is currently going on to find an actor who will play Tyson.