WARRIOR is ROCKY meets KARATE KIDS meets UFC!
Gavin O'Connor's new project setup at Lionsgate and Pride & Glory gets release date.
On the week that Warner Bros. have finally decided a release date for Gavin O'Connor's next film Pride & Glory (the Edward Norton/Michael Madsen boxing film co-written by Joe Carnahan will open October 24th) - Variety say the director has announced his next film. According to the trade it will be Warrior, a mixed-martial-arts saga about two estranged brothers on a collision course to fight in a tournament for the heavyweight championship. Lionsgate have picked up the film. UFC's Randy Couture who with Redbelt & The Scorpion King 2 has recently moved into acting, will play himself in the film - one of the 16 competitors that will be featured when the film begins shooting in Mexico and Pittsburgh this January.
O'Connor, presumably a big fighting sports fan has wrote the script alongside Entourage writer Cliff Dorfman and A.M. Tambakis - hoping the film will be an eventual trilogy. The project was initially setup at New Line but problems over the release of Pride & Glory which occured when the studio went bust meant a lengthy delay over the release of that film and a quick abandon of studio for this picture. O'Connor credited New Line head Toby Emmerich for "letting the project go" to Lionsgate. Warrior sounds like Rocky meets Karate Kid meets UFC. Sounds awesome to me.