Every once in a blue morning, I hear about some news so utterly unexpected that it wakes me up like an adrenaline shot slammed straight into my heart. This is one of those mornings, and this is the news that did so to me:
Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro are going up against each other as retired boxers in the newly-announced movie GRUDGE MATCH. And no, this isn’t the first entry for some October Fools Day – “Entourage” creator/writer Doug Ellin wrote the script, Kevin Hart (THINK LIKE A MAN) has come on board as the fight promoter who orchestrates the whole thing, Peter Segal (GET SMART) is set to direct, and the movie has already been green lit by Warner Bros. This is happening, and I know several people who are going to have to change their shorts after hearing about this. If nothing else, i’m curious to see what sort of shape De Niro gets in for the part, as he’s already expressed that he doesn’t “really see himself recapturing the killer shape he got into when he starred in RAGING BULL and in CAPE FEAR.”
But what do you think? Does this match-up mark the culmination of your boxing movie dreams, or will you find it tough to take a battle between the two cinematic icons seriously at this point in their lives and careers?