Jamie Foxx to star in Antoine Fuqua-directed Mike Tyson series

According to Variety, Jamie Foxx is going to play Mike Tyson in a “biographical limited series” about the boxer with Antoine Fuqua directing and Martin Scorsese apparently on board as an executive producer. As prestige-friendly as that all sounds, though, the project also counts Tyson himself among its executive producers, which invites certain assumptions about what the tone of this thing may end up being (or even what sort of content it may cover). The Variety story says it will “span the whole of Tyson’s life,” but it’s unclear if that includes the abuse allegations that have been raised against Tyson or his rape conviction in the early ‘90s. It would almost be difficult not to mention that, but with Tyson executive producing and a famous, beloved actor playing him… it’s hard to predict how this will land.

No networks or streamers are involved yet, and the pilot will be written by Colin Peterson. Variety also points out that this is the second Mike Tyson project to be announced in the last month, with the other—a Hulu limited series that does not have Tyson’s involvement—being denounced as “inappropriate” and “tone deaf” by the boxer. The Hulu one, titled Iron Mike, comes from I, Tonya’s Steven Rogers, Craig Gillespie, and Margot Robbie, with Rogers writing, Gillespie directing, and Robbie producing.