As it turns out, an eight-part series about the boxing legend Muhammad Ali is currently in development at Peacock and Morgan Freeman, Rege-Jean Page, and Kevin Willmott, according to a report confirmed by Variety.
About Muhammad Ali Series Being Developed at Peacock
It is set to have the title Excellence: 8 Fights and will be a scripted drama series and is expected to be written by Willmott, who previously worked on BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods. The series will be based on Jonathan Eig’s biography entitled “Ali: A Life.” Page and Freeman have both been slated to be the show’s Executive Producers.
Willmott won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2019 for BlacKkKlansman. Morgan Freeman is an Oscar winner that has appeared in such films as Million Dollar Baby, The Shawshank Redemption, and Invictus.
Moreover, after his starring turn in Netflix’s Bridgerton in 2020, Rege-Jean Page continued to broaden his acting horizons with the upcoming action film Dungeons & Dragons, which is set to open at the end of March. This series marks Page’s most significant leap into the production realm to date.
The series is said to chronicle eight of the most defining moments in Muhammad Ali’s life. Each episode will be framed by one fight from the boxer’s life, but what it’s really about is the internal fight – the drama outside the ring – where his internal struggles will be explored.
Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky 1942. The boxer made his fighting debut in 1960 and became known for his trash talk before and after a match. Some time later, he denounced the name Cassius Clay as it was his slave name and later changed it to Muhammad Ali after having an epiphany and converting to Islam.
A release date has not been confirmed yet, but fans eagerly await to see the outcome of this interesting series.