UK Boxing Pic ‘Prizefighter: The Life Of Jem Belcher’ Heads To Amazon Prime But Post-Production Marred By Infighting & Late Payments

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Prime has quietly picked up domestic rights to UK boxing movie Prizefighter: The Life Of Jem Belcher.Also kept relatively quiet has been the casting of Oscar winner Russell Crowe in a key supporting role alongside protagonists Matt Hookings, Ray Winstone, Marton Csokas, Jodhi May, Steven Berkoff and Julian Glover.Set at the turn of the 19th century, the movie charts the story of a gifted young boxer (played by Hookings) who fought his way to becoming champion of England under the watchful eye of trainer and surrogate father Bill Warr (played by Winstone).

The feature has been a passion project and labour of love for Hookings.XYZ struck the multi-million dollar domestic deal and is soon taking delivery of a cut of the film for the Cannes market, where sales are due to continue.

The Amazon delivery will follow this month. Above and below are first look images.But what should be a good news story has unfortunately become a muddied picture due to infighting behind the scenes between some of the film’s producers and financiers.We understand the budget is in the $16-18M range so this isn’t a cheap independent film.The movie is being produced by Hookings’ Camelot Films and Chris Hardman’s Hardman Pictures.

Director is Daniel Graham. Original exec producers on the project were Matthew Chausse and Norman Merry but the exec producer ranks have swollen to include the Malta Film Commission, Media Finance Capital and Sherborne Media.