Southpaw started out as a vehicle for Eminem and it was sold as a vaguely metaphorical looking at his life through boxing. While that idea fell through the film lived on Eminem’s departure, and last November Jake Gyllenhaal attached himself to the lead role.
Now the movie is further coming together as Deadline reports that Rachel McAdams, Lupita Nyong’o and Forest Whitaker are being courted for the movie, which Antoine Fuqua is set to direct.
The film is about a boxer who wins a welterweight title and then suffers a tragedy, forcing him to put his life back together to earn his young daughter’s respect. Nyong’o is set to be a social worker who cares for Gyllenhaal’s daughter, with the presumption being that McAdams will be the love interest as she’s described as the female lead.
Southpaw has certainly been through the Hollywood miller as it first came together at DreamWorks, before moving to Sony, MGM and now The Weinstein Company.
Fuqua is set to direct from a screenplay by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter. Production is slated to begin sometime next year.
You’d think it would be a little late to add new cast members to Everest as it started shooting over a month ago, but 
Southpaw was originally developed as an acting vehicle for Eminem, which was designed to tell a story that was metaphorically autobiographical of the rapper. However he’s moves on but the film is still alive, which the latest news, via 
Jake Gyllenhaal seems to love his beard. While he often has to shave it off for movie roles, in-between films he can’t help but grow a big, tufty face-bush. He’s certainly got one on the cover of Germany’s GQ Style, which you can see above, and another shot of it from inside the lag below.
Everybody in Hollywood is gonna be going up Everest soon – or at least pretending to – with rivals project based on ill-fated assents of the mountain currently in the planning stages. Doug Liman is planning to direct one with Tom Hardy likely to star, while Baltasar Kormakur (2 Guns) is helming the other.