Wolfe
Columbia Pictures and Paramount Pictures have tapped George C. Wolfe to direct the feature version of the boxing-centered doc "Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story."
Writing the script is Stephen Adly Guirgis, the playwright behind the Philip Seymour Hoffman-directed "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" and "Our Lady of 121st Street." Scott Rudin and Dan Klores are producing.
Wolfe, the former producer at the Public Theater, won a Tony Award for directing "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches," and another for directing "Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk." Wolfe most recently directed "Lackawanna Blues" for HBO.
Doc focused on the welterweight boxing champ whose career became defined by the night he battered rival Benny "Kid" Paret into unconsciousness during a nationally televised bout. Paret, who had taunted Griffith by calling him a homosexual, died of his injuries.
Klores directed the docu, which premiered at Sundance and then ran on USA Networks last April. Rudin got the two studios together.
Klores is editing his next docu, "Love Is in the Air," the story of an obsessive 50-year romance between Burt and Linda Pugach. He blinded her in a jealous rage, but they reconnected after he served a 14-year prison sentence.
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