The boxing movie directed by Ang Lee chronicling fights between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier just got even better with the attachment of Peter Morgan as screenwriter.
Peter Morgan, best known for writing the scripts to The Queen and Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, will write the script for Ang Lee’s boxing film. Recently Morgan rejoined with Howard to write the script to Rush, a film that is turning out to be quite successful for both of them.
Related: Read our review of Rush.
Morgan talked about the film to Daily Mail (via SlashFilm) and had some pretty interesting things to say:
It’s a look at how brutal the confrontations were between Ali and Frazier. They were marked by how aggressive Ali was towards Frazier out of the ring. He taunted and belittled him…. Ang wants to work with 3-D technology that will make an audience feel as if they’re inside the ring.
In addition to those direct quotes, Morgan said that he is in the very early stages of writing the script, so the film is a long way off, possibly 2016 or later. He said that he’ll be watch Ali and Frazier’s three legendary fights in the 1970s, including their most famous fight that was dubbed the “Thrilla in Manila.”
Interestingly, Morgan noted that Ang Lee will be working actual clips of the fight into the film.