By Hanna Rantala<\/p>\n
LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) \u2013 Docudrama \u201cGiant\u201d brings the story of Britain\u2019s former world champion \u201cPrince\u201d Naseem Hamed to the big screen, with Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan portraying the boxer and his trainer.<\/p>\n
Hamed held multiple \u200dfeatherweight world titles in a career lasting from 1992 to 2002 and was famed for his spectacular entrances and ringside antics.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiant\u201d follows Hamed\u2019s rise from humble beginnings, focusing on his relationship with mentor and trainer Brendan Ingle.<\/p>\n
Irishman Ingle, played by Brosnan, runs a gym in the English city of Sheffield, seeking to inspire youngsters to swap life in the \u200cstreets for the ring. When Hamed\u2019s Yemeni parents send their \u200csons there to better equip them against racist bullies, 7-year-old Naseem stands out with his fast footwork and swagger. Ingle\u2019s unorthodox training methods and Hamed\u2019s talent propel the two to the top of the sport, but success tests their bond.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a story of two \u200bmen who are wildly ambitious \u2026 who know what it\u2019s like to be on the outside of life and have this ferocious passion to be great,\u201d said \u200dBrosnan premiering the film in London on \u200bWednesday.<\/p>\n
Brothers Ghaith and Ali Saleh play Hamed at ages 7 and \u200b12, while El-Masry portrays the boxer at his peak.<\/p>\n
El-Masry spent four weeks preparing for \u200dthe role, training 12 hours a day, losing 8 kg (18 pounds) and watching archive footage to hone in on Hamed\u2019s movements and bravado.<\/p>\n
\u201cMassive boots to fill. He was one of my heroes growing up,\u201d said El-Masry.<\/p>\n
Sylvester Stallone was an executive producer for \u201cGiant\u201d, which was written and directed by Rowan Athale.<\/p>\n
Athale described the movie \u200das a \u201cfractured love story between a father and a son\u201d.<\/p>\n
The late Ingle\u2019s contributions to boxing and his community \u201cneeded to be focused on\u201d, Athale said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s as brilliant in his \u200dfield as Naz was in \u200dhis, so I wanted to give them equal time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamed, \u200b51, who showed his support by attending the London premiere, \u200bwas not \u2060involved in the production.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be really honest, this is \u200cnot a story about me. It\u2019s a film about the prince and his trainer. It\u2019s not really had my input at all, so it\u2019s some good parts and there\u2019s some bad parts,\u201d Hamed said, adding he was planning a documentary series about his life with actor Mark Wahlberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiant\u201d begins its global theatrical rollout on January 8.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; \u2060Editing by Tom Hogue)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Hanna Rantala LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) \u2013 Docudrama \u201cGiant\u201d brings the story of Britain\u2019s former world champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-395286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}