French-Canadian filmmaker Philippe Falardeau has actually been making movies for almost twenty years, but it wasn’t until about 2011 when he first started getting attention for his drama Monsieur Lazhar, which was nominated for a foreign language Oscar. Falardeau’s 2014 movie The Good Lie, didn’t get much notice despite starring Reese Witherspoon and being released by Warner Bros. Therefore, he hasn’t quite made the waves into Hollywood as his country-mates Denis Villeneuve or Jean-Marc Vallée (Wild).
Undaunted, Falardeau decided to take on the story of Bayonne, New Jersey boxer Chuck Wepner, who famously went up against Ali at the height of his success in the ‘70s and managed to go 15 rounds before the fight was called due to Wepner’s famed “bleeding” during fights. Wepner was alternately known as “The Bayonne Brawler” and “The Bayonne Bleeder.”
The movie Chuck stars Liev Schreiber as the famed boxer who would...
Undaunted, Falardeau decided to take on the story of Bayonne, New Jersey boxer Chuck Wepner, who famously went up against Ali at the height of his success in the ‘70s and managed to go 15 rounds before the fight was called due to Wepner’s famed “bleeding” during fights. Wepner was alternately known as “The Bayonne Brawler” and “The Bayonne Bleeder.”
The movie Chuck stars Liev Schreiber as the famed boxer who would...
- 5/8/2017
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
It would be tough finding a harder working actor than Liev Schreiber who has successfully transitioned from supporting roles in movies to his very own TV show, playing fixer Ray Donovan on the Showtime series for five seasons. He’s received four Golden Globe nominations and two Emmy nominations playing that role.
In between seasons he’s found the time to make Chuck, a movie about the famed “Bayonne Brawler,” Chuck Wepner, whose career was documented in the Espn “30 for 30” doc, The Real Rocky. Besides being the New Jersey Heavyweight Champion in the ‘70s, Wepner famously went 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali, but his somewhat tragic story was also the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone to make Rocky.
The movie, directed by Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar), recreates Chuck’s family life with his second wife Phyllis (Elisabeth Moss) and daughter. It then shows how his brush with fame led to drinking and...
In between seasons he’s found the time to make Chuck, a movie about the famed “Bayonne Brawler,” Chuck Wepner, whose career was documented in the Espn “30 for 30” doc, The Real Rocky. Besides being the New Jersey Heavyweight Champion in the ‘70s, Wepner famously went 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali, but his somewhat tragic story was also the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone to make Rocky.
The movie, directed by Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar), recreates Chuck’s family life with his second wife Phyllis (Elisabeth Moss) and daughter. It then shows how his brush with fame led to drinking and...
- 5/4/2017
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
Before Rocky Balboa, there was Chuck Wepner.
Feeling inspired after watching the Muhammad Ali vs. Wepner 1975 heavyweight boxing fight, a young Sylvester Stallone went home and wrote a script for a movie that would later become Rocky.
While the surprise smash, which would go on to win Best Picture in 1977, wasn’t directly based on a true story, it certainly wasn’t fiction. The character of Rocky Balboa, with his scrappy story, was loosely based on Wepner’s career and legendary fights.
“He asked me to read for the part ,” Wepner — whose storied career included blockbuster matches against George Foreman...
Feeling inspired after watching the Muhammad Ali vs. Wepner 1975 heavyweight boxing fight, a young Sylvester Stallone went home and wrote a script for a movie that would later become Rocky.
While the surprise smash, which would go on to win Best Picture in 1977, wasn’t directly based on a true story, it certainly wasn’t fiction. The character of Rocky Balboa, with his scrappy story, was loosely based on Wepner’s career and legendary fights.
“He asked me to read for the part ,” Wepner — whose storied career included blockbuster matches against George Foreman...
- 5/1/2017
- by Jodi Guglielmi
- PEOPLE.com
Some people’s lives are best told truthfully, others more loosely.
In one corner, we have Rocky, the iconic Best Picture-winning boxing movie starring Sylvester Stallone as the made-up Rocky Balboa. In the other corner, we have Chuck, an upcoming biopic starring Liev Schreiber as real-life boxer Chuck Wepner. The latter primarily depicts the 1975 bout between Wepner and Muhammad Ali, which inspired Stallone to write the script for Rocky. He’s since tried to downplay the connection, especially after being sued by Wepner, but it’s close enough to being a film a clef as any.
Chuck received mostly positive reviews when it played the big film festivals last fall, but it’s unlikely to become the phenomenon, let alone Oscar darling, that Rocky was. Its legacy surely won’t be as lasting, in part because true biopics don’t tend to get sequels. There are a lot of benefits to fictionalized accounts of real events and...
In one corner, we have Rocky, the iconic Best Picture-winning boxing movie starring Sylvester Stallone as the made-up Rocky Balboa. In the other corner, we have Chuck, an upcoming biopic starring Liev Schreiber as real-life boxer Chuck Wepner. The latter primarily depicts the 1975 bout between Wepner and Muhammad Ali, which inspired Stallone to write the script for Rocky. He’s since tried to downplay the connection, especially after being sued by Wepner, but it’s close enough to being a film a clef as any.
Chuck received mostly positive reviews when it played the big film festivals last fall, but it’s unlikely to become the phenomenon, let alone Oscar darling, that Rocky was. Its legacy surely won’t be as lasting, in part because true biopics don’t tend to get sequels. There are a lot of benefits to fictionalized accounts of real events and...
- 4/11/2017
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
“Sometimes Life Is Like A Movie. Sometimes It’S Better”
Watch the trailer for the upcoming movie Chuck – we can’t wait for this one! In theaters May 5th.
Directed by Philippe Falardeau, Chuck stars Naomi Watts, Ron Perlman, Elisabeth Moss, Liev Schreiber, Jim Gaffigan, and Morgan Spector.
He was the pride of Bayonne, New Jersey, a man who went fifteen rounds in the ring with Muhammad Ali, and the real life inspiration for Rocky Balboa. But before all that, Chuck Wepner (Liev Schreiber) was a liquor salesman and father with a modest prizefighting career whose life changed overnight when, in 1975, he was chosen to take on The Greatest in a highly publicized title match.
It’s the beginning of a wild ride through the exhilarating highs and humbling lows of sudden fame—but what happens when your fifteen minutes in the spotlight are up?
Driven by a committed performance from Liev Schreiber,...
Watch the trailer for the upcoming movie Chuck – we can’t wait for this one! In theaters May 5th.
Directed by Philippe Falardeau, Chuck stars Naomi Watts, Ron Perlman, Elisabeth Moss, Liev Schreiber, Jim Gaffigan, and Morgan Spector.
He was the pride of Bayonne, New Jersey, a man who went fifteen rounds in the ring with Muhammad Ali, and the real life inspiration for Rocky Balboa. But before all that, Chuck Wepner (Liev Schreiber) was a liquor salesman and father with a modest prizefighting career whose life changed overnight when, in 1975, he was chosen to take on The Greatest in a highly publicized title match.
It’s the beginning of a wild ride through the exhilarating highs and humbling lows of sudden fame—but what happens when your fifteen minutes in the spotlight are up?
Driven by a committed performance from Liev Schreiber,...
- 4/7/2017
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Many authors use a pseudonym to mask their real identity or to place distance between the text and themselves, but no one creates an entirely new identity with different experiences and actually send them out into the world. Well, that’s exactly what Laura Albert did. The 40-year-old San Francisco former phone-sex operator turned housewife created a literary persona named Jt Leroy, who took the world by storm with his “exploits” about his sordid childhood mired by prostitution, drug addiction, and vagrancy. The new documentary “Author: The Jt LeRoy Story” chronicles Albert’s creation from the height of LeRoy’s fame at fashion events and rock shows to the New York Times pulling the rug out from under the story. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.
Read More: Sundance Review: ‘Author: The Jt LeRoy Story’ Casts a Major Literary Scandal in New Light
The film is directed by Jeff Feuerzeig,...
Read More: Sundance Review: ‘Author: The Jt LeRoy Story’ Casts a Major Literary Scandal in New Light
The film is directed by Jeff Feuerzeig,...
- 8/11/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
If there was ever any doubt that Hollywood is bringing the boxing film back in vogue – 2015 has already served up Jake Gyllenhaal’s Southpaw, not to mention the soon-to-be-released Creed – one need only look to the genre pieces arriving over the next year or so. Not only can fans look forward to the Miles Teller-fronted Bleed for This, but there’s also The Bleeder, an upcoming drama that focuses on the rip-roaring career of Chuck Wepner.
Picking up the gloves and hand tape as the lead fighter is Liev Schreiber, and Deadline reports that Mad Men alum Elisabeth Moss has boarded the starry project as Wepner’s second wife. She’ll join a cast that includes Naomi Watts – Schreiber’s real-life wife, incidentally – who will play the part of the boxer’s third wife, Linda, with each significant other coming in at a crucial part of Wepner’s life.
Picking up the gloves and hand tape as the lead fighter is Liev Schreiber, and Deadline reports that Mad Men alum Elisabeth Moss has boarded the starry project as Wepner’s second wife. She’ll join a cast that includes Naomi Watts – Schreiber’s real-life wife, incidentally – who will play the part of the boxer’s third wife, Linda, with each significant other coming in at a crucial part of Wepner’s life.
- 10/22/2015
- by Michael Briers
- We Got This Covered
The story of the everyman who took on Muhammad Ali in a 1975 title fight is being developed for the big screen by the man who highlighted the tale with the 2011 documentary film The Real Rocky. Filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig is writing the script for The Bleeder, along with Jerry Stahl (Bad Boys II) and Michael Cristofer (Casanova), and Deadline reports that Philippe Falardeau (The Good Lie) is taking the helm. In addition, Liev Schreiber is now confirmed as filling the lead role of professional heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner, whose lengthy and notable career led to his acquisition of the nickname The Bayonne Bleeder.
The former U.S Marine had a mixed record in terms of successful appearances in the ring, when he got a shot at challenging the already legendary Muhammad Ali for the world’s Heavyweight title – a match that took place on March 24th 1975, at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield,...
The former U.S Marine had a mixed record in terms of successful appearances in the ring, when he got a shot at challenging the already legendary Muhammad Ali for the world’s Heavyweight title – a match that took place on March 24th 1975, at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield,...
- 10/9/2015
- by Sarah Myles
- We Got This Covered
Liev Schreiber is calling from the gym. It’s clearly not a New York Sports Club, judging from the background noise. In fact, it’s a boxing gym. The actor was training to portray a boxer in a movie — more on that below — and he’s since adopted those sessions into his regular workout routine. On Friday, though, the Tony-winning actor and star of such films as The Manchurian Candidate and Defiance will be at New York’s Lincoln Center to participate in a film symposium called Roughcut, a special spin-off of TropFest, the Australian short-film festival that’s become...
- 12/3/2012
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
It goes without saying that The Dude in The Big Lebowski is one of Jeff Bridges best performances and easily his most memorable character (with Kevin Flynn from Tron and Tron Legacy coming in as a close second). The character is larger than life, but would you believe that The Dude has some real-life inspiration in a man? Sundance Award winning director Jeff Feuerzeig, director of The Devil and Daniel Johnston and the Espn 30 for 30 documentary The Real Rocky (on Netflix Instant now), actually knew The Dude himself (real name Jeff Dowd) and caught up with him at Lebowski Fest in Tampa, Florida. Thankfully, he filmed the meeting and put footage together for a cool documentary short that you can watch in full below! Here's Jeff Feuerzeig's documentary short The Dude, brought to our attention in SlashFilm's Page 2: It's amazing to see just how close Bridges performance and...
- 8/27/2012
- by Ethan Anderton
- firstshowing.net
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