LOS ANGELES – Mark Wahlberg is so proud of The Fighter’s Academy Awards success, he is making plans to revive the boxing movie for a sequel. The actor plays real life boxing legend ‘Irish’ Micky Ward in the picture, opposite Christian Bale as Ward’s half-brother Dicky Ecklund.
‘The Fighter’ scored a number of high-profile awards nominations and Bale went on to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance, while Melissa Leo walked away with the Best Supporting Actress prize for her role as the boxing brothers’ mum.
Wahlberg has now confirmed he’s in talks to bring ‘The Fighter’ back for a second film to portray Ward’s later career in the ring, and the actor is even keeping up his boxing training for when he needs to step back into the role.
He tells, “I got bit by the bug, and now I’m trying to plant the idea in everyone’s head that we should do – not five or six Fighters like Rocky – but one more because the big thing that Micky Ward was famous for was his three epic battles with Arturo Gatti. So we’re talking about possibly taking one more run at it. Everybody had such an amazing experience making the movie that I can’t imagine they wouldn’t want to go back. But it’s still kind of in the early stages.”
And he reveals the real life Ward and Ecklund are backing plans for a sequel.
