Jonathan Jakubowicz to Direct Gael Garcia Bernal as Boxing Champ Duran

Just before The Fighter breaks out into moving-going consciousness, Venezuelan helmer Jonathan Jakubowicz wants us to think about another legend of the boxing world. Best known for helming 2005’s Secuestro Express, Jakubowicz will write, direct and produce, while Gael Garcia Bernal will need to pack on the pounds if he is set to star as the legendary, five-time world boxing champ Roberto Duran in Hands of Stone.

Ben Silverman and Jay Weisleder, currently working together on another biopic, Catinflas, will produce the $15 million feature. Robin Duran Iglesias, son of Roberto, will serve as an associate producer while Paul Webster, who worked on The Motorcyle Diaries with Bernal, is on as executive producer. Al Pacino is circling the role of boxing trainer Ray Arcel, and Spanish actor Oscar Jaenada’s name has also been thrown into the mix.

The film will be shot both in Panama, Duran’s birthplace, and New York, and will mainly be in English, despite Silverman telling TheWrap, that releasing a film about a Latin American superstar is an effort to appeal to the Hispanic market.

Since his 2005 film breakout film, Jakubowicz has been attached to several projects that failed to get the greenlight, including the border crosser thriller Southbound, the book to screen adaptation of Queen of the South and a remake of a Dominik Moll film project set up by the Weinsteins called Paranoia.  

Gist: Roberto Duran, nicknamed “Hands of Stone,” debuted as a professional at the age of 16 and fought until his retirement in 2002 at age 50. The film will centre on his career versus Sugar Ray Leonard, whom he defeated in June 1980 (“The Brawl in Montreal”) to capture the WBC welterweight title. In their rematch five months later, Duran shocked the boxing world by returning to his corner after the 8th round and famously uttering “no mas” (no more.) “The infamous ‘no mas’ fight is the biggest enigma in the history of boxing. This movie will answer that enigma,” Jakubowicz told Variety. Duran and Leonard fought once more in 1989, with Leonard winning in a decision.

Worth Noting: In 2005, Panamanian fimmaker Pituka Ortega-Heilbron made a documentary about Duran’s life entitled “Los punos de una nacion,” which translates to ‘The fists of a nation.’

Do We Care?: There has always been a ton of speculation surrounding what Duran actually said while quitting his rematch with Leonard. It will be interesting to see how a feature narrative, rather than a documentary, answers this mystery.