Cinema has always like movies about boxing, probably because it’s one of the few sports that is known and practised pretty much everywhere in the world (Tinsel Town may make a lot of Baseball and American Football movies too, but they rarely draw big audiences outside the US). Now a new one is in the works, with Variety reporting that Gael Garcia Bernal has signed up to play Roberto Duran in a biopic of the five-time world boxing champion.
The film, titled Hands Of Stone (which was Duran’s nickname), will look at the Panamanian born fighter, who made his professional debut in 1968 at the age of 16 and didn’t retire until 2002, when he was 50. However the hook will surround his 1980 capturing of the WBC welterweight title from Sugar Ray Leonard, which led to an infamous rematch, where Duran ended up retiring to his corner simply saying ‘no more’. No one has ever been entirely certain what it was that made Duran give up on the fight, but director Jonathan Jakubowicz says Hands Of Stone will answer it.
Along with Bernal, Variety says Al Pacino is circling the role of Duran’s trainer, Ray Arcel, although as yet he hasn’t officially signed on. Spanish actor Oscar Jacienda is also attached for an unspecified key role. Filming is expected to start in the spring.