Disney Developing Jesse Owens Biopic with Director Antoine Fuqua
Disney is gearing up to develop a biopic based on the life of American track and field legend Jesse Owens. The studio has lined up Training Day director Antoine Fuqua to take on the the project.
The movie will be based on the book Triumph, which was written by ESPN host Jeremy Schaap, and it will be adapted into a screenplay by David Seidler. Seilder won an Oscar for his screenplay for The King's Speech.
The movie has got a couple of talented people involved so far, so I imagine this movie could turn out to be a great film. It will tell the story of how "the son of an Alabama sharecropper shattered Adolf Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy by winning a record four gold medals in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the long jump, and the 400-meter relay. Hitler had insisted Jews and Blacks not be allowed to participate in the games, but relented when threatened with a boycott. He shook hands only with the German victors on the first day of competition and then skipped all further medal presentations."
I'm not a big fan of sports, but I love sports movies and history, so I'm excited to see how this movie turns out!
Here's the book description,
At the 1936 Olympics, against a backdrop of swastikas and goose-stepping storm troopers, an African-American son of sharecroppers won a staggering four gold medals and single-handedly demonstrated that Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy was a lie. The story of Jesse Owens at the Berlin games is that of an athletic performance that transcends sports. It is also the intimate and complex tale of one remarkable man's courage. Drawing on unprecedented access to the Owens family, previously unpublished interviews, and exhaustive archival research, Jeremy Schaap transports us to Germany and tells the dramatic tale of Owens and his fellow athletes at the contest dubbed the Nazi Olympics.
Hitler was an ass.
Via: Variety