By Zanub Saeed
Channing Tatum, who has had a sizzling year in 2012 with hits like "The Vow," "21 Jump Street," and June's release of "Magic Mike," based off his real-life stripper days, will be starring in a biopic on the life of Evel Knievel, reported the Hollywood Reporter.
Tatum will not only star as the daredevil showman, but produce the feature as well, along with "The Social Network" team of Mike De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who have just signed on to head the "Fifty Shades of Grey" film series. Tatum is in negotiations to star in the film for Columbia and Sony Pictures, noted The Hollywood Reporter, and the actor himself will produce it with his Iron Horse Entertainment production company partner Reid Carolin, who is also writing the script on the biopic.
Tatum is not the first actor to play Knievel; George Hamilton portrayed the famous thrill-seeker in the 1971 release of "Evel Knievel," and Knievel starred in his own autobiographical feature, "Viva Knievel!" in 1977. Tatum's version of Knievel's life will be based on the 2008 biography written by Stuart Barker called "Life if Evel," noted the Hollywood Reporter.
The next project for Tatum, however, will be "Foxcatcher," based on the real-life story of Olympic wrestler Mark Shultz, with director Bennett Miller. Tatum will next be seen in the sequel to "G.I. Joe," which reported had rewrites and reshoots to that his character would be featured more, as he was originally killed off in the second installment early on. The movie is set to be released sometime this year.
Knievel was a stuntman who was most famous for his massive motorcycle jumps, which were televised in the 1970s, and during his years had 433 broken bones. He died in 2007 at the age of 69.
