In the last few months Billy Bob Thornton mainly seems to have gone around walking out of interviews as he toured with his band, if anyone mentioned he was an actor. However it looks like it might now be safe to mention that he appears in films as he’s signed up for an adaptation of Pound For Pound, which is due to be directed by Ron Shelton.
The film is a boxing drama based on a novel by Million Dollar Baby writer F.X. Toole, about a retired boxer who becomes depressed after his grandson is killed in a car accident and an up-and-coming Latino fighter from a difficult background. The lives of the two intersect in unexpected ways.
Thornton is due to play the older boxer, while the producers are yet to cast the younger role. However if you’re worried this is going to be as depressing as Million Dollar Baby, apparently the story of Pound For Pound may have dark undertones, but there’s an optimistic note to the pic and a hoepful ending (thank goodness, as I don’t think I could take another movie like Baby).
The film continues Shelton’s sports obsession, as he’s previously made Bull Durhham, White Men Can’t Jump, Play It To The Bone, Tin Cup, and he’s recently announced he’ll be making a new golf-themed comedy, Q School, with Dennis Quaid and Tim Allen.
There’s no news yet on when the film will be in cinemas.