Sugar Ray and his 1952 Pink Cadillac in front of his Harlem nightclub
David Oyelowo To Play Sugar Ray Robinson In ‘Sweet Thunder’
Deadline bring word that David Oyelowo is set to play iconic boxer Sugar Ray Robinson in a biopic based on the Wil Haygood biography ‘Sweet Thunder: The Life And Times Of Sugar Ray Robinson.’ Considered one of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers ever, ‘Sweet Thunder’ tells Robinson’s rise to greatness within the context of the fighter’s life and times. Oyelowo recently starred in ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes,’ ‘The Help’ and ‘Red Tails,’ while he’ll next be seen on the big screen opposite Tom Cruise in ‘Jack Reacher’ and alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln.’ The official synopsis for Haygood’s ‘Sweet Thunder: The Life And Times Of Sugar Ray Robinson’ can be read below.
Continuing to set himself apart as one of our canniest cultural historians, Wil Haygood grounds the spectacular story of Robinson’s rise to greatness within the context of the fighter’s life and times. Born Walker Smith, Jr., in 1921, Robinson had an early childhood marked by the seething racial tensions and explosive race riots that infected the Midwest throughout the twenties and thirties. After his mother moved him and his sisters to the relative safety of Harlem, he came of age in the vibrant post-Renaissance years. It was there that—encouraged to box by his mother, who wanted him off the streets—he soon became a rising star, cutting an electrifying, glamorous figure, riding around town in his famous pink Cadillac. Beyond the celebrity, though, Robinson would emerge as a powerful, often controversial black symbol in a rapidly changing America. Haygood also weaves in the stories of Langston Hughes, Lena Horne, and Miles Davis, whose lives not only intersected with Robinson’s but also contribute richly to the scope and soul of the book.
From Robinson’s gruesome six-bout war with Jake “Raging Bull” LaMotta and his lethal meeting with Jimmy Doyle to his Harlem nightclub years and thwarted show-biz dreams, Haygood brings the champion’s story, in the ring and out, powerfully to life against a vividly painted backdrop of the world he captivated.
http://www.flicksandbits.com/2012/1...ay-sugar-ray-robinson-in-sweet-thunder/33062/
David Oyelowo To Play Sugar Ray Robinson In ‘Sweet Thunder’
Deadline bring word that David Oyelowo is set to play iconic boxer Sugar Ray Robinson in a biopic based on the Wil Haygood biography ‘Sweet Thunder: The Life And Times Of Sugar Ray Robinson.’ Considered one of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers ever, ‘Sweet Thunder’ tells Robinson’s rise to greatness within the context of the fighter’s life and times. Oyelowo recently starred in ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes,’ ‘The Help’ and ‘Red Tails,’ while he’ll next be seen on the big screen opposite Tom Cruise in ‘Jack Reacher’ and alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln.’ The official synopsis for Haygood’s ‘Sweet Thunder: The Life And Times Of Sugar Ray Robinson’ can be read below.
Continuing to set himself apart as one of our canniest cultural historians, Wil Haygood grounds the spectacular story of Robinson’s rise to greatness within the context of the fighter’s life and times. Born Walker Smith, Jr., in 1921, Robinson had an early childhood marked by the seething racial tensions and explosive race riots that infected the Midwest throughout the twenties and thirties. After his mother moved him and his sisters to the relative safety of Harlem, he came of age in the vibrant post-Renaissance years. It was there that—encouraged to box by his mother, who wanted him off the streets—he soon became a rising star, cutting an electrifying, glamorous figure, riding around town in his famous pink Cadillac. Beyond the celebrity, though, Robinson would emerge as a powerful, often controversial black symbol in a rapidly changing America. Haygood also weaves in the stories of Langston Hughes, Lena Horne, and Miles Davis, whose lives not only intersected with Robinson’s but also contribute richly to the scope and soul of the book.
From Robinson’s gruesome six-bout war with Jake “Raging Bull” LaMotta and his lethal meeting with Jimmy Doyle to his Harlem nightclub years and thwarted show-biz dreams, Haygood brings the champion’s story, in the ring and out, powerfully to life against a vividly painted backdrop of the world he captivated.
http://www.flicksandbits.com/2012/1...ay-sugar-ray-robinson-in-sweet-thunder/33062/
