The living legend, former two-time heavyweight king George Foreman will finally see his incredible life story given the silver screen treatment it so richly deserves, as the as-yet untitled Foreman biopic will begin filming early next year. It will, though, be March of 2023 before the film is released in theatres.
The Wrap reported this week how acclaimed actor Forest Whitaker will play the pivotal role of Doc Broadus, the man who “discovered” Foreman and got him into boxing and trained him. Michael K. Williams was to have played Broadus yet he tragically died last September. Khris Davis will play Foreman, while Sullivan Jones will play the part of Muhammad Ali. It is to be hoped Foreman himself has a cameo appearance in the film and that other real-life fighters, trainers, commentators appear in the film.
So who was Doc Broadus? Very much a father figure to the young Foreman the way Cus D’Amato was a father figure to a young Mike Tyson, Broadus met the teenage Foreman in the Job Corp program that had been created by President Johnson. Doc quickly recognized Foreman’s physical attributes and his sheer strength and raw power. Foreman, often getting into fights, was told by Broadus to channel his considerable energies into legalized fighting in the ring. “You’re big enough and ugly enough, why don’t you try boxing?” Broadus said to Foreman. The rest is history.
And it is to be hoped the forthcoming film does a great job in telling the Foreman story with both accuracy as well as passion. Reportedly, the film will begin with the rough, tough, and impoverished childhood years of Foreman’s life and it will end with his spectacular, history-making winning back of the heavyweight crown. In between will be Foreman’s astonishingly rapid progress to Olympic gold, his crushing win over Joe Frazier, and of course the epic fight with Ali. Hopefully, Foreman’s awesome fight with Ron Lyle will also get covered.
Many great fighters have had the movie treatment and the film of “Big George’s” life is way overdue. The cast is solid, the film is clearly no rush job and we fans can afford to be optimistic about the film. March 24, 2023, cannot come around fast enough.
Foreman is a truly amazing human being and his two-ring careers saw him give so much to the world. Will Foreman’s record as the oldest heavyweight champ of all time (this at 45 years and ten months) ever be broken? Very possibly not for a good many years. If ever.