Chalk Ben Foster's name on to the list of people appearing in based-on-truth films about boxers. He's set to star in a new drama called Harry Haft.
Barry Levinson is on to direct the film, working from Justine Juel Gillmer's praised script, itself based on Alan Scott Haft's book about his father, Harry Haft: Survivor Of Auschwitz, Challenger Of Rocky Marciano. The story is a painful, important one of a man who made it through the notorious camp being forced to fight fellow prisoners in ghoulish gladiatorial battles. Victory meant surviving long enough to fight another day, with the 76 opponents he defeated marched to their deaths.
Haft carried a heavy burden of guilt and attempted to use high-profile post-World War II fights against boxing legends like Rocky Marciano as a way to rediscover a reason to live and to again find the woman he fell in love with before the war, who fueled his drive to survive the Nazis.
Levinson will have the cameras rolling this February with Bron Studios and New Mandate Films producing. Foster will next be seen in another true tale, Medieval.
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