GRUDGE MATCH
Warner Bros. Pictures’
“Grudge Match” stars award-winning movie legends Oscar® nominee
Sylvester Stallone (the “Rocky” films, “The Expendables”) and Oscar®
winner Robert De Niro (“Raging Bull,” “Silver Linings Playbook”) as old boxing
rivals who come out of retirement for one final match. Peter Segal (“Get Smart”) directs the comedy.
In
“Grudge Match,” Stallone and De Niro play Henry “Razor” Sharp and Billy “The
Kid” McDonnen, two local Pittsburgh
fighters whose fierce rivalry put them in the national spotlight. Each had scored a victory against the other
during their heyday, but in 1983, on the eve of their decisive third match,
Razor suddenly announced his retirement, refusing to explain why but effectively
delivering a knock-out punch to both their careers. Thirty years later, boxing promoter Dante
Slate Jr., seeing big dollar signs, makes them an offer they can’t refuse: to
re-enter the ring and settle the score once and for all.
But they
may not have to wait that long: on their first encounter in decades, their
long-festering feud erupts into an unintentionally hilarious melee that
instantly goes viral. The sudden social
media frenzy transforms their local grudge match into a must-see HBO
event. Now, if they can just survive the
training, they may actually live to fight again.
The film also stars Kevin
Hart (“Think Like a Man”) as Dante Slate Jr.; Oscar® winner Alan
Arkin as Razor’s former trainer, Louis
“Lightning” Conlon, who gets to put Razor through his paces again; and Oscar®
winner Kim Basinger (“L.A. Confidential”) as
Sally Rose, who was once the love of Razor’s life.
Rounding
out the cast are Jon Bernthal (upcoming “The Wolf of Wall Street,” TV’s “The Walking Dead”) as BJ, who becomes The Kid’s instinctive but untested
trainer; and young film newcomer Camden Gray (“Californication”).
Segal is directing from a screenplay
by Rodney Rothman, story by Tim Kelleher.
The film is being produced by Bill Gerber (“Gran Torino”), Mark Steven
Johnson (“Grumpy Old Men,” “Grumpier Old Men”), Michael Ewing (“Get Smart”) and
Ravi Mehta (“The Lucky One”). Peter
Segal, Jane Rosenthal and Kevin King-Templeton are serving as executive
producers.
Collaborating with Segal behind the
scenes are: Academy Award®-winning cinematographer Dean Semler
(“Dances With Wolves,” “Apocalypto”); production designer Wynn Thomas
(“Cinderella Man”); costume designer Mary Vogt (“Men in Black 3”); and editor
William Kerr (“Bridesmaids”). Robert
Sale, who was the technical advisor on “Rocky Balboa,” is serving as the film’s
boxing consultant. The music is by
Trevor Rabin.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents a
Gerber Pictures Production, a Callahan Filmworks Production, a Peter Segal
film, “Grudge Match.” The film opens
beginning December 25, 2013 and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a
Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
