Several months back I reported on the rumors of a comedy about two sixty-something ex-boxers titled Grudge Match that would pit perhaps the two most iconic film boxers — Sylvester Stallone and Robert DeNiro — against one another. It is a clever idea — sort of like Grumpy Old Men with boxing gloves — but nothing much has been said about the film since while Stallone and DeNiro both pursued other projects in their busy schedules.
However, Deadline is finally reporting some news on the project, which indicates that Warner Bros. is still planning on getting this comedy going. Kevin Hart (Think Like a Man) is joining the cast at the promoter of the fight between the two former ring greats. What hasn’t changed is that the film will be directed by Peter Segal (Tommy Boy, 50 First Dates, The Longest Yard, Get Smart) and Entourage creator Doug Ellin is writing the latest draft of the script, but no word on any of the other writers. Billy Gerber and Mark Steven Johnson are producing.
I think this will be a lot of fun, and at the very least it will be good to see Stallone and DeNiro paired up again (they appeared together in 1997’s Copland, which I regard as an unrecognized gem and one of DeNiro’s last truly great roles). And hey, even if it ends up bad it probably won’t be as awful as Raging Bull 2… ah, I mean, The Bronx Bull.
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