Spike Lee Jumps On Board Mike Tyson’s HBO Boxing Drama, Da Brick

Mike Tyson is bouncing back not as a heavy weight contender but to wrest the title from Mark Wahlberg’s Entourage, which was loosely based on Mark Wahlberg’s early years in Hollywood. Tyson who appeared in a 2010 episode of Entourage, playing himself recently came up to Doug Ellin;

Why don’t you do with my life what you did with Mark’s life?

Ellin has since claimed that;

The initial idea was an episode, Entourage meets The Wire, an edgy story about an up-and-coming boxer and his crew that is more than Entourage.

Although he’s currently best known as that guy whose tattoo artist tried to sue Warner Bros. for reproducing his design on Ed Helms’ face in Hangover II, Mike Tyson was perhaps one of the most exciting boxers ever! He was the undisputed heavyweight champion and still holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles. He won the WBC title when he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old, after defeating Trevor Berbick by a TKO in the second round. Throughout his career, Tyson became well-known for his ferocious and intimidating boxing style as well as his controversial behavior both inside and outside the ring.

On February 10, 1992 after a jury deliberated for nearly 10 hours, Tyson was convicted on the rape of 18-year-old Desiree Washington, Miss Black Rhode Island, in an Indianapolis hotel room. He never recovered from it!

Now HBO has ordered a pilot for a new drama series called Da Brick, which will be inspired by Tyson’s early days as a boxer. Spike Lee has signed on to direct the pilot and will executive produce with Tyson, Entourage creator Doug Ellin and Jim Lefkowitz. John Ridley (Three Kings, Undercover Brother) will serve as writer and show runner.

The project, entitled Da Brick, is described as a contemporary exploration of what it means to be a young, black man in post-racial America. The show is set in current-day Newark, NJ, which is also known as Brick City. HBO is currently exploring casting choices for the lead, a young black actor (18-21 years old) who is also credible in the boxing ring. Like Entourage, Da Brick won’t be a strictly biographical show, but rather a fictionalized series inspired by Tyson’s life. Ellin has already heaped praise on Ridley’s script;

It is amazingly intricate with lots of places it can go. It won’t just focus on boxing.

I am a huge boxing fan, but even if I were not, I would still be head over heals about the idea. Certainly, the rise of a young athlete in a richly textured town obsessed with a sport lots of people don’t understand, is indeed a topic ripe for drama. Would you follow it?