Soon, we can add bisexual boxer Emile Griffith to the ranks of LGBT people who’ve gotten their own biopic.
Deadline is reporting that Room director Lenny Abrahamson has optioned the book A Man’s World: The Double Life Of Emile Griffith, and wants to co-write and direct a film version.
Griffith was a ’60s boxer who won world titles in multiple weight classes, but was best known for beating Benny “The Kid” Parret to death on live TV after Parret grabbed his butt and called him a maricón (the Spanish version of “faggot”).
From what Abrahamson told Deadline, the movie sounds like it’ll be completely different than what we’ve seen before of LGBTs on film:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“As a character study, Griffith is incredibly compelling. There was a gentleness and innocence about him, and he never seemed conflicted about his sexuality; indeed he found joy in it. He inhabited two worlds — the underground gay scene in New York in the ’60s and the macho world of boxing. The societal stigma at that time was dreadful and created a crushing pressure on him.”
We’re looking forward to it. Let’s just hope it does a little better than the last LGBT period piece we got. That one didn’t go over too well.
Check out the infamous Parret fight below to take a look at Griffith in action.
Luis H. Lopez
Let him out !
JerseyMike
Looking forward to seeing this..
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
That’s a masculine YASSSSSS from me
Xzamilio
Too bad Michael B. Jordan is doing the Creed movies (doubt that will become a spinoff franchise) because I would love to see him in the movie.
jkb
Those referees were useless.
alphacentauri
I’m surprised more people don’t die when boxing or doing MMA.
stranded
Roland Emmerich should take over and direct it, using Jake Gyllenhaal as Griffith
Kangol
@stranded: Hahahaha! Would you be surprised if that happened? Gyllenhaal with bleached blond hair, too.
This is one biopic I’m looking forward to. I hope the director and screenwriter(s) don’t screw it up, though.
StephK
If Parret had kept his homophobic mouth shut, perhaps he would have lived a much longer life. I can’t say that it wasn’t a tragedy, but one has to admit Parret had brought that beating on himself. Just by watching this clip, you can sense Griffith’s rage at his opponent.