Prince Naseem Biopic Seemingly Still in the Works

Crafty, ultra-swift southpaw ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed was once Britain’s crown jewel in the sport of boxing. The featherweight dazzled in the ring, both looking devastating and nonchalant. Despite ending his career 36-1, the former WBO, IBF, and WBC World featherweight champion has a legacy of missed opportunity.

Naturally, with 31 knockouts in 36 fights in the featherweight division, Prince Naseem remains a highlight reel star to this day, but there’s certainly a lot of intrigue around his controversial career and its conclusion. So, hopefully, his story will make for a strong biopic, which is seemingly still in production.

Sly’s on board, and Doha’s backing a project

Back in January 2023, it was reported that the man behind one of the most famous boxing movies of all time was entering into a new boxing movie project. Sylvester Stallone was announced as an executive producer for a new movie called ‘Giant,’ which focuses on Naseem Hamed’s career.

Also on board is Paddy Considine following his excellent turn as King Viserys Targaryen in House of the Dragon and Egyptian-Canadian actor Mena Massoud, who starred in The Sacrifice Game. The story’s said to follow the rags-to-riches journey of the British-Yemeni boxer on his way to a world title with the help of trainer Brendan Ingle.

In April of that year, reports indicated that filming was set to commence in Sheffield. Massoud was confirmed as playing the part of Naseem, and Considine came in as his Irish trainer. However, as with many productions, the summer strikes in Hollywood resulted in production delays for the upcoming movie Giant.

At the end of November, the actors’ strike came to an end, following the end of the writers’ strike in September. Little else was made public after the end of the strikes, but some other news came out of Qatar. A boxing documentary film on Naseem Hamed received backing from the Doha Film Institute in the form of a grant.

A mixed bag of boxing movies

Boxing offers prime turf for making great movies because the story of success is so evident, and all while producing stellar action on-screen. Naturally, the most famous is Rocky. It may only have a 70/100 score on Metacritic, but its legacy is exemplary.

On that same platform, it boasts an 8.7 out of 10.0 from users, earning it “Universal Acclaim,” and it has spawned a whole slew of movies and licensed tie-in games. In fact, on the best bingo app, there are two Rocky games. Amongst the stacks of games, from 1p bingo to the over 300 real-money slots, the two Rocky games reign supreme for boxing and movie fans alike.

Rocky is seen as the pinnacle is revered by those who love boxing, and this is why it’s so marketable in other forms of entertainment. There aren’t many other boxing productions that can say the same. The Creed spin-off movies of Rocky landed quite well, but others like Big George Foreman (2003), Southpaw (2015), and Bleed for This (2016) didn’t do quite so well with critics. Perhaps its greatest rival is, rightfully, Raging Bull, from Martin Scorsese.

A Prince Naseem biopic has the potential to be one of the successful boxing flicks, and has a lot of talent on-screen and behind the scenes, but of course, the film needs to be completed first.