By Ryan Maquinana
Jerry Ferrara, known for his role as Turtle on HBO’s “Entourage,” will play the late Arturo Gatti in an upcoming biopic.
According to Variety, the film will be produced by Pro Football Hall of Famer and current TV personality Michael Strahan, in association with SMAC Entertainment’s Constance Schwartz, Sandy Kyrkostas of 24p Media Group and Pat Lynch, Gatti’s longtime manager.
Ferrara, who was on Tuesday's "Rich Eisen Podcast" to talk about his numerous upcoming roles, has apparently been training so hard that he's tweeted about hurting his hands in the process.
Mark Wahlberg, who played Gatti’s rival and friend Micky Ward in “The Fighter,” will be the executive producer along with Stephen Levinson.
Gatti (40-9, 31 KOs), from Jersey City, N.J., via Montreal, captured titles at junior lightweight and junior welterweight while capturing boxing fans’ imagination with his resilient, blood-and-guts fighting style. The four-time Ring Magazine Fight of the Year award winner was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame posthumously in 2013.
Gatti’s family continues to dispute the circumstances behind the fighter’s 2009 death, as they maintain that a private coroner’s investigation concluded it was a homicide. Initially, Brazilian authorities charged his wife, Amanda Rodrigues, with murder, before ultimately ruling it a suicide.
Follow Ryan Maquinana on Twitter @RMaq28 or email him at rmaquinana@gmail.com .
