Miles Teller is a fascinating case to me, because internet commenters seem to hate him with a passion approaching Amy-Schumer’s-not-even-hot-bro, while Hollywood producers seem to think he’s the next James Dean. That trend looks to continue as Teller plays boxer Vinny Pazienza in Bleed for This, a Ben Younger-directed biopic exec produced by Martin Scorsese that was recently acquired at Cannes. It’s about time someone finally made a movie about a white boxer, I always say.
After another all night bare-knuckle bidding brawl, Open Road is closing a deal for Bleed For This, the Ben Younger-directed film that stars Miles Teller as world champion fighter Vinny Pazienza and Aaron Eckhart as the trainer who helped Pazienza come back to the ring after a near fatal car crash left him with a broken neck. The deal is for $4 million and the bidding started shortly after buyers were shown a 12-minute promo reel Friday night for a film that is now in post-production. There is no set release plan, but this comeback story has big time awards season and commercial potential. [Deadline]
I’m sure we’ll all have a good laugh, chortle, and guffaw about a doughy blanderson like Miles Teller playing a boxer, until a few months from now when they release a promo still showing how jacked Miles Teller is, at which point we’ll all act like it’s a Nobel Prize-worthy achievement for an actor with nothing to do but work out all day and with access to the finest hormones to get buff. Oh my gosh, look at his veins! So method! What transformation! Get him the Oscar! This is just like when Eddie Redmayne injured his spine pretending!
That said, Ben Younger directed Boiler Room and Prime, both of which I enjoyed. Boiler Room made Vin Diesel look like he can act, so who knows what kind of magic he can make with Miles Teller. Not that Miles Teller needs magic, I’m already convinced he’s the beneficiary of some gypsy curse.