David Oyelowo’s career seems to have absolutely exploded over the past couple of years. Despite a brilliant turn as James McAvoy’s conflicted, doctor friend in 2006’s THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. It took a few more years for the talented brit to really hit the mainstream, but with roles in RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and RED TAILS as well as the upcoming LINCOLN, JACK REACHER and THE BUTLER, David Oyelowo is only going one way and that is up. Now it seems he is ready to headline his own film as well as he has signed on to play boxing legend, Sugar Ray Robinson. The film, called SWEET THUNDER, is based on a biography by Wil Haygood, who also will also script the film version. It will be produced by Rachael Horovitz (MONEYBALL, ABOUT SCHMIDT) and Danny Strong (THE BUTLER). The book is being described as follows:
Continuing to set himself apart as one of our canniest cultural historians, Wil Haygood grounds the spectacular story of Robinson’s rise to greatness within the context of the fighter’s life and times. Born Walker Smith, Jr., in 1921, Robinson had an early childhood marked by the seething racial tensions and explosive race riots that infected the Midwest throughout the twenties and thirties. After his mother moved him and his sisters to the relative safety of Harlem, he came of age in the vibrant post-Renaissance years. It was there that ‘encouraged to box by his mother, who wanted him off the streets’ he soon became a rising star, cutting an electrifying, glamorous figure, riding around town in his famous pink Cadillac. Beyond the celebrity, though, Robinson would emerge as a powerful, often controversial black symbol in a rapidly changing America. Haygood also weaves in the stories of Langston Hughes, Lena Horne, and Miles Davis, whose lives not only intersected with Robinson’s but also contribute richly to the scope and soul of the book.
From Robinson’s gruesome six-bout war with Jake “Raging Bull” LaMotta and his lethal meeting with Jimmy Doyle to his Harlem nightclub years and thwarted show-biz dreams, Haygood brings the champion’s story, in the ring and out, powerfully to life against a vividly painted backdrop of the world he captivated.
This film could end up being really good. I think David Oyelowo is a really talented actor and I’m glad to see him get a headlining gig after being a supporting actor most of his life. It’s going to be interesting what other kind of talent they can get on board, and exactly how they’re going to boil such an interesting and flamboyant life down to 2-2 and a half hours. Biopics are not an easy task, but they can be done well (WALK THE LINE), so fingers crossed that this will do Sugar Ray justice.
Source: Deadline
