RING OF FIRE Feature
Last year at Sundance, Alec and I saw a powerful documentary entitled RING OF FIRE: The Emile Griffith Story. It was one of Alec's favorite films of that year.
The documentary centers on a fatal fight in 1962. At Madison Square Garden, in a live broadcast, Emile Griffith punched rival Benny "Kid" Paret unconscious, leaving him in a coma. Paret died 10 days later. It was later revealed that Paret had called Griffith maricón, the Spanish word for "faggot." Visit the website listed above to watch video clips from the documentary including comments by Griffith and the actual fight.
Variety is reporting that the documentary is being made into a feature. According to the trade publication, Columbia Pictures and Paramount Pictures have tapped George C. Wolfe to direct the feature version of the boxing-centered doc "Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story."
