“Stallone kills Liston! Stallone kills Liston!”

I first told you about Grudge Match, a film which would star 66-year-old Sylvester Stallone and 69-year-old Robert DeNiro as two aging boxers coming out of retirement for one last fight, two years ago, when the principals would’ve been a boyish 64 and 67. But the movie world works slowly, and it wasn’t until now that it’s been greenlit by Warner Bros. Kevin Hart is playing the promoter, to be directed by the guy from 50 First Dates and the latest script by Entourage creator Doug Ellin. So… yeah.

Warner Bros has set Kevin Hart to play the fight promoter who gets two retired brawlers back in the ring in Grudge Match. Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone are now set to play the fighters who square off in the ring, and the studio has greenlighted the film that will be directed by Peter Segal. Tim Kelleher wrote the script and the most recent draft is by Entourage architect Doug Ellin, with Billy Gerber and Mark Steven Johnson producing with Michael Ewing. [Deadline]

Raging Bull came out in 1980, Rocky in 1976. Applying this to the real-life champions from those years, this is sort of like if Larry Holmes and Muhammad Ali came out of retirement to fight each other. It seems unlikely, but then again, this 62-year dude (same age as Larry Holmes) KO’d a whippersnapper with a spinning backfist the other day, so who knows. I’ll be old someday, it’s fun to dream. Sly Stallone shoots babies up with HGH and then sucks it out of their spines, so I’m sure he’s already in fine shape to play a boxer, aside from his weird face. De Niro, on the other hand, looks like this:

Not bad, but presumably he’ll have to put in some hard gym hours if he’s going to hang around with his shirt off. Meanwhile, director Peter Segal’s resume includes:

  • Get Smart
  • 50 First Dates
  • The Longest Yard
  • Anger Management
  • The Nutty Professor II
  • My Fellow Americans
  • Tommy Boy
  • Naked Gun 33 1/3

Point being, if De Niro gets in shape for this, it’ll be the hardest anyone’s worked for this guy since Chris Farley died.