Tuckman Media will launch The Featherweight, Emmy winner Robert Kolodny’s (cinematographer of Procession and All of the Magnificence and the Bloodshed) characteristic directorial debut which follows the true story of the legendary 2x World Featherweight boxing champion Willie Pep.
The spectacular solid is led by James Madio (The Penguin, Band of Brothers) with a profession greatest efficiency as Pep, alongside Ruby Wolf in her characteristic debut, Keir Gilchrist (Love & Demise, Atypical), Stephen Lang (Avatar Franchise), Ron Livingston (The Flash, Loudermilk) Lawrence Gilliard Jr (The Strolling Lifeless, One Evening in Miami…), undefeated skilled featherweight boxer Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington, and Hartford native Imma Aiello in her personal big-screen debut as Mama Papaleo, Willie Pep’s mom.
The movie will open in theaters throughout Pep’s hometown state of Connecticut on September twentieth. It had its world premiere final yr on the eightieth Venice Worldwide Movie Competition with a six-minute standing ovation and at present has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Set within the mid-Sixties in Hartford, Connecticut, The Featherweight presents a gripping chapter within the true-life story of Italian American boxer Willie Pep (James Madio)—the winningest fighter of all time—who, down and out in his mid-40s and together with his private life in shambles, decides to make a return to the ring, at which level a documentary digicam crew enters his life. Painstakingly researched and constructed, the movie is a visceral portrait of the discontents of twentieth-century American masculinity, fame and self-perception.
Many govt producers on the film are Connecticut-based, together with Dan Adams, Greg Butler, Donna Collins, Mark Contreras, Manon Cox, Angelo DeFazio, Robert Feiner, Karl Krapek, Alan Lazowski, Robert Patricelli, and John Wolfson. Hartford producer Joe Younger co-produced. The movie was supported in full by George Norfleet and Mark Dixon of the State Movie Workplace and State Consultant James Sanchez. The manufacturing was endorsed and supported by former Mayor Luke Bronin and Governor Ned Lamont.
The film filmed in native establishments like Pratalona Social Membership, The Hartford Membership, The Polish Nationwide Dwelling, The West Indian Social Membership, Carbone’s, Hartford PAL Gymnasium on Broad Road, 4 Ropes Boxing, and Bushnell Park, to call a number of.
Actual Artwork Methods will host a sneak preview of the film on September 18th. Additionally on the 18th, Constitution Oak Boxing Academy (COBA) – the place James Madio educated for the function of Pep and the place a lot of the combat choreography was rehearsed – will host a press convention with choose solid and producers at 5:30 p.m. in entrance of the Willie Pep mural on Pope Park Freeway. The producers and solid will even revisit varied filming websites all through the day to advertise the September twentieth opening of the movie.
Following its Venice Movie Competition premiere, The Featherweight performed movie festivals around the globe, together with the Provincetown Worldwide Movie Competition the place Kolodny acquired the John Schlesinger Award for Finest Director of a story movie. The image has been praised for its technical facets because it recreates the 60s in vivid element and intersperses staged and archival boxing footage, framing the narrative by the lens of a documentary crew following Pep as he comes out of retirement and returns to the ring. Madio ready for the function by coaching with John “The Iceman” Scully who knew Pep for over 30 years, and was educated by one among Pep’s coaching companions, Joe Barile. Scully put Madio by months of coaching so he may precisely seize the strategies and motion of Pep.
“It’s a thrill to current The Featherweight to audiences, a movie that our good solid and distinctive crew so diligently put their whole hearts into. The story of Willie Pep is such an American story, one among nice highs and horrible lows. He’s not solely a world class prizefighter on the verge of coming undone, however he’s additionally the quintessential mid-century man, with all his faults and fissures laid naked earlier than the digicam,” stated Kolodny.
Government Producer Donna Collins of Rocky Hill acknowledged that “The making of The Featherweight in our beloved Hartford is a case examine on how filmmaking can create neighborhood delight, honor the legacy of a hometown hero, and supply native financial influence. Greater than a movie manufacturing, it’s a neighborhood collaboration.”
“Producers have been attempting to deliver Willie Pep’s story to the large display screen for many years and we’re thrilled and honored to lastly get it accomplished. Pep has probably the most wins in boxing historical past and most have by no means heard of him. We’re hoping The Featherweight will change that whereas additionally solidifying his legacy as one of many biggest to ever lace them up,” added author and producer Steve Loff.
Loff (Desert Rain) wrote the script and produced along with Madio, Bennett Elliott, Robert Greene (who additionally edited the movie), Asger Hussain and Abhayanand Singh. Government Producers additionally embrace two-time Oscar nominee Steve James, Jennifer Davisson, Michael Hampton, Brian Liebman and Mark Hantoot.
