Pierce Brosnan is set to play Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle in "Giant," the new biopic about former world featherweight champion "Prince" Naseem “Naz” Hamed.
"Giant" is due to begin filming in Leeds in the UK later this month, with Sylvester Stallone on board as an executive producer through his company Balboa Productions, Deadline reports.
Amir El-Masry, who has previously starred in "A Haunting in Venice" and "SAS: Rogue Heroes," will star opposite Brosnan as Hamed in the film.
According to Deadline, the synopsis for the upcoming film says: "'Giant' is the true story of Hamed’s humble beginnings on the tough working-class streets of Sheffield and his discovery by Ingle, himself a steel industry worker turned boxing trainer.
"Their unlikely partnership along with Naz’ unorthodox style, cocky persona, and sheer dominance in the ring, propelled them to the top of boxing’s elite and unprecedented levels of global superstardom, all in the face of the rampant Islamophobia and racism of 80’s and 90’s Britain."
Ingle, who died in 2018 aged 77, trained numerous world and European champions, including former WBC Light Welterweight champion Junior Witter and former WBO Cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson.
Speaking after Ingle's death, Hamed said that he would "not have achieved all I did in the sport of boxing" had it not been for Ingle.
Meanwhile, Brosnan has a sentimental connection to boxing. Asked during a 2014 interview with GQ about any possessions that remind him of his childhood, Brosnan said: "There are boxing gloves. My mother gave me boxing gloves; I wanted boxing gloves. I liked to box. So I still have them. They're still in my bookcase, very old, tattered, and they were cherished.
"When I got them that Christmas, my grandmother was dying; I was living in Kells. My mother couldn't come home that Christmas because she had to work as a nurse. But the boxing gloves were a brilliant distraction from the pain in the heart."
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