Josh Hartnett, who recently turned in his best performance to date in Lucky Number Slevin, is set to join Samuel L. Jackson in the Rod Lurie directed drama Resurrecting the Champ.
Yari Film Group is co-producing the pic with Phoenix Pictures with filming set to commence on June 19 in Calgary.
The flick finds Hartnett playing a young reporter who finds a homeless man who he thinks is a famous former boxer. But the fighter, with whom he has developed a close relationship, proves not to be the former champ.
Apparently the story idea originated eight years ago when Phoenix optioned a series of articles written by Los Angeles Times reporter J.R. Moehringer. The writing gig at the time went to Allison Burnett, but ultimately Lurie got the last word with the final rewrite and he told Variety, “The article made me cry and this is a wonderful story of fathers and sons and the honesty between them.”
