The Bleeder (Liev Schreiber / Naomi Watts / Elisabeth Moss)

The Toronto International Film Festival this morning added Chuck Wepner biopic The Bleeder to next month’s lineup, where it will screen as a Special Presentation. That will follow the world premiere of the Liev Schreiber starrer out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on September 2.

Directed by Philippe Falardeau, The Bleeder tells the real-life story of Wepner, the journeyman underdog boxer who was 35 when he improbably pushed world champ Muhammad Ali to the limit in their 1975 title fight. Moss plays his second wife, Phyllis, to whom he was married at the time.

Naomi Watts, Schreiber’s real-life spouse, is aboard to play Wepner’s third wife Linda, who steered him through troubles after the Ali fight — which included a prison stint for cocaine possession — and ultimately to sobriety and redemption. Ron Perlman, Jim Gaffigan and Pooch Hall also star.

The script is by Jeff Feuerzeig & Jerry Stahl and Michael Cristofer. Schreiber is producing with Mike Tollin, Carl Hampe, Christa Campbell and Lati Grobman; Jeff Rice is exec producing. UTA and Nu Image are co-repping U.S. rights; Nu Image is selling internationally.

Tollin and Feuerzeig purchased Wepner’s life rights a decade ago, and they teamed on the ESPN 30 for 30 docu The Real Rocky, which chronicled Wepner’s story. The boxer claims he was the inspiration for the iconic Rocky Balboa character.

At the screening in Venice, Schreiber will receive the Persol Tribute to Visionary Talent Award 2016.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Another boxing movie with "bleed" in the title. What's going on? Are we going to start seeing more boxing movies now?

WyldeMan wrote:Southpaw and Creed reinvigorated Hollywood's desire for boxing movies.

But unfortunately Hands of Stone, Bleed For This and The Bleeder are all scheduled to come out between August and November, so they're not spacing them apart and they're gonna cannibalize each other, that's my expectations anyways.

Don't expect to hear much about boxing movies again until the Creed sequel.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I didn't think there was going to be a sequel to Creed. I liked both Southpaw and Creed but it feels like we're getting too much already.