Eminem's New Boxing Movie 'Southpaw' Closing in on Antoine Fuqua to Direct

Hip-hop's most popular and controversial star, Eminem is heading back to the silver screen as the lead in a new boxing movie called Southpaw written by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter.  The LA Times blog reported today that Dreamworks is close to a deal with Training Day director Antoine Fuqua to helm this project that centers around a welterweight boxer, who is trying to return championship form after a personal tragedy.

If and when Fuqua signs onto Southpaw, it will add another film to his list of upcoming projects that includes directing biopics on Pablo Escobar and Tupac Shakur and a romantic drama set in 8th century China.  Dreamworks acquired the movie back in December, during The Fighter's successful box office run in theaters, which resulted in multiple Oscar nominations and even won a few statues.  The studio likely has similar high hopes in mind with Southpaw.       

This will be Eminem's first movie role since he played a character loosely based on himself, aspiring rapper Jimmy 'B-Rabbit' Smith in the hit movie 8 Mile.  There's no doubt he has the physique to pull off playing a welterweight boxer, but it'll be interesting to see how far his acting chops have come along since 8 Mile and whether he has the range to make this new boxing character believable.

I enjoyed his performance in 8 Mile, and have also liked most of the work that I've seen from both Kurt Sutter and Antoine Fuqua.  Let's hope this trio can make a solid boxing movie.   

Comments

[James]

This sounds like it could be very good.
Sons of Anarchy is a great show, way under rated, so I'm very interested in film if/when it gets going.