Ang Lee has been trying to bring Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier’s titanic “Thrilla In Manilla” fight to cinema screens for several years now. For whatever reason though, the project just wasn’t coming together: It spent some time in development at Universal back in 2013, but when nothing came of it, Lee went off to make the upcoming Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk for TriStar. The Oscar-winning director is apparently both persistent and resourceful, because the film is now over at Jeff Robinov’s Studio 8, and it looks to be moving forward. According to Deadline, Lee has already begun scouting locations. And The Wrap reports that Ray Fisher (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) is being considered to portray Ali against David Oyelowo as (Interstellar, Selma) as Frazier. (No official offers have yet been made.)
And as Lee has seemingly been infected by the 3-D virus that has been going around the film industry lately—with both of his last dramas, Billy Lynn and Life Of Pi, utilizing the technology—it’s all but certain that he’ll be using it again here, with /Film reporting that Lee is planning to shoot the movie in 3-G. It’ll be like that blood and sweat is coming right at you!
[via /Film]