nullA year after The Weinstein Company picked up Antoine Fuqua’s boxing drama Southpaw, which was to star starring Eminem, the project looks like it’s finally packaged and ready to shoot, with Jake Gyllenhaal now attached to star.

It had previously been put on the backburner after Dreamworks (the original studio that was to produce it) pulled the plug on the project in August 2011. And then in late 2011, it was announced that Sony Pictures had stepped in to release the film, which was penned by Eminem and Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, and tells the story of a left-handed welterweight boxer who becomes a champion, before experiencing tragedy, and later finds the determination to make a comeback.

Southpaw was set to begin production early in 2012, with Alan and Peter Riche, along with Paul Rosenberg and Stuart Parr producing, but that obviously didn’t happen.

And finally, a year later, The Weinstein Company rode in to save the project, which Fuqua is still attached to direct, but Eminem no longer starring.

In an interview Fuqua gave us last year, while he was doing press for Olympus Has Fallen, he shared that he’d met with Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner for the part.

With shooting eyed for an early summer start, the search for Gyllenhaal’s co-star, who’ll play a character named Titus ‘Tick’ Willis, is on the way. No word on whether the character is of any specific race or ethnicity, but can we safely assume that, with a name like Titus ‘Tick’ Willis, there’s a good chance that the character is black?
Titus ‘Tick’ Willis is described as a former fighter forced to retire after losing an eye. Plans to return to the sport, but as a trainer, are derailed after his son is killed.