Darren Aronofsky is to take on Hollywood’s long-gestating biopic of the legendary stunt rider Evel Knievel, reports the Tracking Board.
Magic Mike star Channing Tatum remains on board to star as the daredevil motorcycle rider who once jumped 14 buses at Ohio’s Kings Island theme park and earned a Guinness world record for surviving 433 broken bones during his 20-year jumping career. But Peter Berg, the Hancock and Battleship director, has walked away for unspecified reasons and the project, which was first announced in 2012, now has a fresh script from Scott Silver, who wrote The Fighter and 8 Mile.
Knievel, known for his famous stars-and-stripes jumpsuit, died in 2007 at the age of 69. He held the record for jumping his Harley-Davidson motorcycle over 19 cars for 27 years, until it was broken by Bubba Blackwell in 1998, and also boasted the record for jumping the most buses on a Harley-Davidson for 24 years, until it was broken – again by Blackwell – in 1999.
A previous biopic, also titled simply Evel Knievel, was released in 1971 at the height of the stuntman’s fame, with George Hamilton in the title role.
Evel Knievel is the first project Aronofsky has been linked to since the release of his epic biblical fantasy Noah, which scored $362m worldwide off the back of strong reviews.
