Chuck Wepner movie in 2012? (ROCKY SPOILERS)

I heard a very interesting radio interview recently with the inspiration for Rocky - Chuck Wepner. He had many interesting tales on fighting Ali, Liston, Andre the giant and even a bear! Also his associaton with Stallone and the movie business. Which lead to mention of a movie that's potentially being made with some big names including Harvey Keitel. A movie about Chuck Wepner.

Surely this begs one simple question: Why Chuck Wepner?

Not long ago, after a future Roberto Duran movie came to light, one or two members pointed out how odd it was that generally the big budget boxing movies (outside of Ali) never seem to be about black fighters. James Braddock and Mickey Ward have both had hollywood films, hardly elite examples of boxing greatness.

What does everybody think of the prospect of a Chuck Wepner movie? A man from an absolute golden era of heavyweights who was beaten with something to spare by the best he faced, and some other less renowned fighters gets his story told while the stories of greats like Frazier are left on the sidelines. Liston had phantom punch but that was abit of a B movie from what I've read.

Chuck Wepner: A Man and His Moustache

I read an article about this on the bbc website, they stated that chuck wepner was the inspiration for the Rocky movies, as a young stallone watched him challenge for the heavyweight title against Ali (if I remember correctly) in philadelphia, and being inspired to write the screenplay for the first rocky film. Therefore the reason for a film about him is obviously from a marketing perspective, as they can bill it as the real rocky.

The films about LaMotta, Braddock and Ali all made sense to me although the Ward one never interested me as he ultimately never achieved anything so unlike the Cinderella man didn't have the against all odds aspect to it nor would Wepner. Also don't understand where the marketability for films about Wepner or Ward comes from, nobody really knows them, the boxing fans don't really remember them so it baffles me to be honest.

I'm back, the office would quite literally fall apart without me.

Think that Ward was relatively well known, but they didn't sell the film on it being about Ward really, they sold it on more being a dramatic piece of cinema and struggles with his family and boxing career.

With Wepner there's the selling point of it being the "Real Life Rocky Story" another easy selling point. We don't know whether it will crash or not however.

Braddock isn't exactly what you would call well known either though, outside of boxing fans. In fact really not very well known outside of hardcore boxing fans I would imagine.

For these movies I don't really think it is the person that sells them particularly well, I think it's more the actors participating and the reviews of how good the movie is really.

I'm back, the office would quite literally fall apart without me.

And we have no mods or admins..............

And i didn't know cleaners had offices

For starters, there's nothing wrong with being a cleaner, it's a noble profession.

For seconds, I have a beautiful desk, and I'm no cleaner

How can a desk be 'beautiful'..? My god, you make Dale Winton look butch!

I look at my desk and I see an object of beauty, my dear friend.

I look at my desk and then at a gorgeous coworker of mine (not your sort Alex) put two and two together and come up with 5.

The Fighter is as much about Dicky Ecklund as it is about Ward and it works because there was a good dramatic story to be told about that family. If it had purely been about Ward it would have climaxed (fnar fnar) with the Gatti trilogy.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:I look at my desk and then at a gorgeous coworker of mine (not your sort Alex) put two and two together and come up with 5.

Do they both give you wood?

AlexHuckerby wrote:

Imperial Ghosty wrote:I look at my desk and then at a gorgeous coworker of mine (not your sort Alex) put two and two together and come up with 5.

Do they both give you wood?

That's so unfunny it should warrant a ban.

Made me chuckle whilst writing it... Perhaps that says a lot about me though.

Unless Wepner went on to win the World title in a rematch with Ali, got beaten by a Tyson-esque figure, regained it from aforementioned Tyson-esque figure, saw his best friend killed by a Klitbot then defeated the Klitbot, retired due to injury, lost all his money, trained a young buck who then won the World title but betrayed him, only to be defeated by Wepner in a street brawl, disappeared for several years before returning to give a mediocre Champion 12 hard rounds and then hanging 'em up for good, I think it would be best to leave the Chuck Wepner Story where it belongs...under the title "Rocky"

DAVE667 wrote:Unless Wepner went on to win the World title in a rematch with Ali, got beaten by a Tyson-esque figure, regained it from aforementioned Tyson-esque figure, saw his best friend killed by a Klitbot then defeated the Klitbot, retired due to injury, lost all his money, trained a young buck who then won the World title but betrayed him, only to be defeated by Wepner in a street brawl, disappeared for several years before returning to give a mediocre Champion 12 hard rounds and then hanging 'em up for good, I think it would be best to leave the Chuck Wepner Story where it belongs...under the title "Rocky"

That's that box set ruined.

Brilliant article name change.