Posted by | Ray Cornelius
Gentleman, start your engines…
The race is on in Hollywood right now as to which Jesse Owens biopic will make it to the big screens first as well as a list of actors who are vying for the coveted role.
According to Deadline, soon-to-be-Jimi Hendrix star Anthony Mackie is teaming up with his former We Are Marshall writer Jamie Linden for an untitled project about the Olympic sprinter. Reportedly, Mackie really wants to play Owens and is currently looking for a distributor. His passion project will “focus on Owen’s run-up to the 1936 games and the profound impact his performance had on the world.”
At the same time, Indie Wire is reporting that rising Canadian actor Stephan James is replacing soon-to-be Star Wars actor John Boyega in the Owens biopic, Race. This project is will “focus on Owens shattering Adolf Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by winning a record four gold medals in the 100-meter dash, the 200 meter dash, the long jump and the 400-meter relay.” The film is being directed by Stephen Hopkins and scripted by Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel. Unlike the other projects, this film has the full support of the Jessie Owens Foundation and the Jesse Owens Trust.
Finally, there is 3rd film project that is being directed by Antoine Fuqua and Disney that is based on ESPN anchor Jeremy Schaap’s book, Triumph. However, casting for this film has yet to be announced.
Owens made Olympic history in 1936, when he shattered Hitler’s theory that Germans where the superior race. He is an American sports legend who went on to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1990, posthumously.
RC will keep you posted as these three film projects continue to develop.
Remember guys, “The race is not given to the swift or the strong but the one who endures to the end…”
Photo Credit: badische-zeitung.de
