Legendary professional boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who is regarded by many as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, will be the subject of an eight-part event series which is being developed by streaming service Peacock. The scripted series has been titled ‘Excellence: 8 Fights’ and it will be based on Jonathan Eig’s 2018 biography ‘Ali: A Life’.
The upcoming Mohammad Ali series is being backed by Oscar winning veteran actor Morgan Freeman and ‘Bridgerton’ star Rege-Jean Page as executive producers. However, it is currently not confirmed whether Rege-Jean Page will also star in the series as Mohammad Ali. The series will be penned by Kevin Willmott, who had bagged an Academy Award for the 2018 biographical dark comedy film ‘BlacKkKlansman’ and has also lent his writing skills for Spike Lee’s war drama ‘Da 5 Bloods’.
‘Excellence: 8 Fights’ will focus on eight different and defining moments in the life of the iconic sportsman Mohammad Ali. Each episode will feature one important fight from Mohammad Ali’s boxing career. But the essence of every episode will be on what went behind-the-scenes and outside the ring for these matches and the kind of struggle endured by the legendary boxing champ.
Peacock’s ‘Excellence: 8 Fights’ is obviously not the first time a movie or series will showcase the life and career of Muhammad Ali. Previously, Will Smith had famously starred in the titular role in Michael Mann’s 2001 film ‘Ali’. Earlier, a documentary film ‘When We Were Kings’, which was based on the boxing match between world heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, had bagged an Oscar back in 1996. Even Sylvester Stallone’s cult film ‘Rocky’ was inspired from the life of Muhammad Ali.
More recently, ‘’Training Day’ helmer Antoine Fuqua directed a well-crafted documentary film called ‘What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali’ in 2019. After that, a critically acclaimed four-part docuseries simply titled ‘Muhammad Ali’ spanning four different time periods in around eight hours was released in the year 2021. Now, it would be interesting to see what new Peacock’s upcoming Muhammad Ali series ‘Excellence: 8 Fights’ will offer to the audiences and to Ali’s diehard fans.
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
