Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts and Christina Hendricks have all signed on to boxing drama The Bleeder .
A project that Schreiber has been actively supporting for most of this year, Bleeder will see the actor playing Chuck Wepner, the real-life New Jersey heavyweight boxer whose fight with Muhammad Ali was the inspiration for Rocky .
“There’s a guy named Chuck Wepner, the Bayonne Bleeder. He’s the guy that Rocky was based on,” Schreiber told MTV earlier this year.
“He went 15 rounds with Ali in 1974 and it's this wonderful story of what happened to that guy as a result of his rise to fame.”
“That's the next thing I'd like to do. It’s just a remarkable, hilarious film.”
The Bleeder will be the first narrative film from documentary director Jeff Feuerzeig ( The Devil And Daniel Johnston ), who’s co-written Bleeder ’s script with Bad Boys II scribe Jerry Stahl.
The film’s being shopped around Cannes this week. After the massive success of The Fighter, we’d be surprised if any financiers passed it up.
