Actor Jake Gyllenhaal is rumored to star in Southpaw, a boxing drama directed by Training Day's Antoine Fuqua.
The Wrap reported that the role was once offered to rapper Eminem.
The film has received the run-around. First the film was pitched to Dreamworks, but when they dropped out, MGM planned to distribute through Sony, and that was also dropped. The Weinstein Company then picked it up and is following through with the movie.
If the film deal is signed, then Gyllenhaal will play a left-handed boxer whose victorious lifestyle suffers from tragedy. He must put his life back together to fix his relationship with his daughter.
"It's about boxing but it's not about boxing," Fuqua told The LA Times. "The heart of the movie is about a man learning to be a father."
Kurt Sutter, creator of Sons of Anarchy, was hired to write the script, and production is scheduled to start next year.
Gyllenhaal has recently received great critical acclaim for his roles in End of Watch and Prisoners, and will appear in Denis Villeneuve's Enemy, Baltasar Kormakur's Everest, and currently filming Dan Gilroy's "Nightcrawler.
Image: ABC