Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins has been set to star in “Cus And Mike,” the story of Mike Tyson’s gamed trainer Cus D’Amato who moulded the fighter into becoming the ferocious boxer and youngest heavyweight title winner ever.
Both a character study and sports-biopic, Nick Cassavetes (“The Notebook,” “John Q”) will helm pen and direct the film based on the original screenplay by Desmond Nakano and the novel “Mike Tyson: Money, Myth, and Betrayal” by Montieth Illingworth.
The story will chart how the tough but brilliant D’Amato became a father-figure to the wayward adolescent Tyson who would go on to become the revered fighter and then a figure of controversy. D’Amato died in 1985 and trained the likes of Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres.
The search for the young Tyson is underway and filming aims to begin in the Spring and Summer of 2020. Michael Mendelsohn and Jim Steele produce. George C. Scott previously played D’Amato in a 1995 HBO telemovie.
Source: Deadline
