Sylvester Stallone is Set to Make a Film about Boxer Jack Johnson Who Was recently Pardoned By President Trump

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Sylvester Stallone is producing a new film project with MGM that will tell the story of boxer Jack Johnson, who was recently posthumously pardoned by President Trump. This will be the first film project to be developed under Stallone's new production company, Balboa Productions. 

Johnson was the first African-American heavyweight champion (1908–1915) and apparently, Stallone was instrumental in obtaining a presidential pardon for Johnson, who was convicted of violating the Mann Act in 1910 for transporting a woman across state lines for "immoral purposes."

Here's a brief rundown of Johnson's life thanks to Wiki:

John Arthur Johnson (March 31, 1878 – June 10, 1946), nicknamed the Galveston Giant, was an American boxer who, at the height of the Jim Crow era, became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion (1908–1915). Among the period's most dominant champions, Johnson remains a boxing legend, with his 1910 fight against James J. Jeffries dubbed the "fight of the century." According to filmmaker Ken Burns, "for more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and the most notorious African-American on Earth".
In 1912, Johnson opened a successful and luxurious "black and tan" (desegregated) restaurant and nightclub, which in part was run by his wife, a white woman. Major newspapers of the time soon openly claimed that, it was not until he became famous as a black man married to a white woman, and was linked to other white women was Johnson gone after by the government. Johnson was arrested on charges of violating the Mann Act—forbidding one to transport a woman across state lines for "immoral purposes"—a racially motivated charge that embroiled him in controversy for his relationships, including marriages, with white women. Sentenced to a year in prison, Johnson fled the country and fought boxing matches abroad for 7 years until 1920 when he served his sentence at the federal penitentiary at Levenworth. 
Johnson continued taking paying fights for many years, and operated several other businesses, including lucrative endorsement deals. Johnson died in a car crash on June 10, 1946, at the age of 68. He is buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

This is sure to be a great project for Stallone to develop. There's no word on who will write, direct, or star in the series, but Johnson's story is sure to make a great film.

Source: Variety



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