The bisexual boxer Emile Griffith is about to get his 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 in LGBTQ films:
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“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.”
Check out the infamous Parret fight below to take a look at Griffith in action.
