The first glimpses of the new Prince Naseem Hamed biopic, Giant, are in and honestly, we cannot get over how much both Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan resemble the duo of boxing champ Prince Naseem and his trainer Brendan Ingle.
El-Masry is scarily identical to the real life southpaw superstar, while acting icon Brosnan looks about as close to a ’90’s boxing coach as you will get – bald, glasses, and gym towel around his neck – Cus D’Amato chic, if you will.
Together, the duo will tell the story of legendary Yemeni-British boxer, Prince Naseem Hamed and his trainer, Brendan Ingle, in the upcoming film, Giant.
The film will be written and directed by Rowan Athale (The Rise, and the Sky/AMC series, Gangs of London).
Hamad, a devout Muslim who regularly prayed before his fights, emerged as a symbol of inspiration for countless working class Muslims in Britain. However, amidst his rise to fame, he also encountered racism and Islamophobia. Hamed was discovered in Sheffield by Ingle, a steel industry worker turned boxing trainer, and their unlikely partnership laid the foundations for one of the most successful and storied careers in fighting sports history.
During the filming of Raging Bull, the true story of boxer Jake LaMotta, Robert DeNiro personally trained with LaMotta to prepare for his role, and the fighter praised DeNiro so much, claiming that if he wanted, he could have competed full time. DeNiro went on to win an Oscar for his performance, becoming arguably the first actor to ever undergo a complete body transformation and gaining tons of weight in order to play LaMotta in his later years. The real life Prince Naseem is only fifty years old today, so one could only imagine that he will be lending his skills to help train and prepare El-Masr for his role.
On the topic of boxing biopics, we have yet to get any current update on what has happened with the eagerly anticipated Mike Tyson biopic which, at one point, was meant to star Jamie Foxx, and potentially Anthony Hopkins as his legendary trainer, Cus D’Amato. Martin Scorsese had initial interest alongside Foxx, with Bruce Willis slated to play D’Amato, but then that fell through. Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook, Alpha Dog) was attached to the project, but ever since that news broke in 2020, we’ve had nothing but crickets for the last four years.