George Fenton is scoring the upcoming HBO original movie Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight. The film is directed by Stephen Frears and stars Christopher Plummer, Frank Langella, Benjamin Walker, Danny Glover, Barry Levinson, Pablo Schreiber, Ed Begley Jr., Bob Balaban and Kathleen Chalfant. The movie chronicles Ali’s battle with the Supreme Court over his Muslim beliefs as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. Instead of casting an actor to play the boxing legend, the film will utilize actual footage of Ali. The screenplay is written by Shawn Slovo (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin) and Frank Doelger (Game of Thrones), Tracey Scoffield (Dirty Pretty Things) and Jonathan Cameron are executive producing the HBO Films production. Scott Ferguson (You Don’t Know Jack) is producing. Fenton has collaborated with Frears numerous times on such films as Dangerous Liaisons, Hero, Mary Reilly and Mrs. Henderson Presents. The director’s other previous musical collaborators include Alexandre Desplat (The Queen), Elmer Bernstein (The Grifters) and Carter Burwell (The Hi-Lo Country). Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight is expected to premiere later this year on HBO.
As previously reported, Fenton has also scored the British documentary The Spirit of ’45 directed by Ken Loach.
