EXCLUSIVE: The Righteous Gemstones‘ Tony Cavalero is starring in the Sydney Sweeney led untitled Black Bear financed Christy Martin biopic.
The film directed by David Michôd from a screenplay he co-wrote with Mirrah Foulkes, follows the true story of formidable Christy Martin, who rose to fame as America’s most successful female boxer in the 1990s. A naturally gifted fighter, Christy’s life transformed in 1989 when she met her manager, and later husband, Jim Martin. Breaking boundaries, she became the first woman to sign with iconic promoter Don King, and the only female boxer to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Christy’s charisma, good looks and unwavering resilience in the ring won her a wide fan base and propelled her to become welterweight champion. Behind this well-honed public persona, Christy tackled personal demons, toxic relationships, and an attempt on her life, proving that a fighter’s hardest won victories aren’t always in the ring.
Cavalero will appear as James “Shortdog” Maloney in movie which also includes Ben Foster, Merritt Weaver, Ethan Embry, Jess Gabor, Katy O’Brian, and Chad L. Colman.
Cavalero is best known for his breakout performance as ‘Keefe’ in the Danny McBride HBO series The Righteous Gemstones. He recently made his SXSW film festival debut in Cold Wallet as ‘Dom’, alongside Raul Castillo and Melonie Diaz and directed by Cutter Hodierne. He also stars alongside Simon Rex in the upcoming feature Operation Taco Gary’s. Cavalero is represented by Gersh, Nicole Garcia Management, and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Feldman, Rogal, Shikora & Clark.
The untitled project is being produced by Kerry Kohansky-Roberts for Anonymous Content, Michôd for Yoki, Inc., Justin Lothrop and Brent Stiefel for Votiv, Sweeney for Fifty-Fifty Films and Teddy Schwarzman for Black Bear, who is also fully financing. EPs include Michael Heimler and John Friedberg for Black Bear, Foulkes, Brad Zimmerman for Yoki, Inc., David Levine, Ryan Schwartz and Nick Shumaker for Anonymous Content, and Harrison Huffman. Black Bear is handling the foreign rights, while UTA Independent Film Group, AC Independent (Anonymous Content’s sales and finance division), and Black Bear are co-representing U.S. rights. This picture marks the second collaboration between Sweeney and Black Bear, who recently partnered on horror vehicle Immaculate which was released by NEON and grossed $28.4M at the global box office.
