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Mark Wahlberg Updates Darren Aronofsky's The Fighter

July 1, 2008
Source: MTV
by Alex Billington

Mark Wahlberg

Requiem for a Dream's Darren Aronofsky has two similarly titled films in the works: The Wrestler and The Fighter. The first one is about Randy 'The Ram' Robinson and stars Mickey Rourke. The second one is about 'Irish' Micky Ward and stars Mark Wahlberg. We already know that Aronofsky has been shooting The Wrestler for a while and is actually probably finishing post-production on the film right now anyway. However, Wahlberg himself finally updates MTV on the status of The Fighter, the film I'm more interested in, and says that they're expecting to start shooting in October. If you're concerned about it being another bleak boxing movie, don't worry, so is Wahlberg.

Wahlberg tells MTV that, "I've been training for two years now. I'm ready. I want to look like a champ, not a chump." Wahlberg wants it to hold up to Raging Bull, but considering that is the undisputed champion of boxing movies, it'll be quite hard to even achieve that level of excellence, nor even surpass. However, Wahlberg explains that he's doing this movie for one man - Micky Ward himself. "I want to do him proud. The guy did everything I wish I could have done. He came from nothing, went on to win the world title with all the odds stacked against him. Did it with his mother and his brother… He's still in the same town to this day. He's got a regular job. He knows that I'm going to put it all on the line for him."

Between Aronofsky's two upcoming movies, The Fighter is the one I really am looking forward to the most. I don't really care about wrestling and always thought that sounded like the worse of the two anyway. Plus, I prefer Wahlberg over Rourke, even though they're both fine actors. It's definitely exciting to hear that they'll move The Fighter into production this fall. In all honesty, I'm excited to see both - I'm much more interested in seeing how Aronofsky follows The Fountain than anything. He's a brilliant filmmaker and has never let me down - let's just hope he continues to make great films even as he works with bigger studios and bigger budgets. The Wrestler doesn't have a studio yet, but The Fighter is at Paramount.

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Reader Feedback - 4 Comments »

1

I feel the opposite. I never cared for boxing at all, Raging Bull,Rocky, and The Simpsons episode which Moe manages Homer as a boxer are the lone exceptions. The Fighter sounds very interesting, so maybe that will be another exception to add.

Ivan on Jul 1, 2008

2

I hope Clint Mansell is involved in both movies.
He's a freakin genius

Saif on Jul 1, 2008

3

They finished filming The Wrestler in March. Darren has been editing the movie on Malta (where his fiance Rachel Weisz is shooting Alejandro Amenábar's Agora) - http://darrenaronofsky.blogspot.com/

Personally I have more faith in Rourke than Wahlberg, but knowing Aronofsky's skill as a director I'm really looking forward to both movies. It will be very interesting to see if he keeps his own visual style of storytelling or if he goes in another direction.

Andreas on Jul 1, 2008

4

Is there any way of finding out where the shooting of The Fighter could be taking place?
I absolutely must find out.

Mical on Jul 7, 2008

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