'Marshall Mathers LP 2' rapper Eminem replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal for 'Southpaw' boxing movie?

A boxing movie entitled Southpaw and starring Eminem as a left-handed boxer has been in the works for about 3 or 4 years now. The project has moved from studio to studio and lost the rapper as the lead actor, though director Antoine Fuqua ensures that Eminem is till heavily involved. Now it looks like Fuqua might have found his lead for the film in Jake Gyllenhaal.

Earlier this year, the director revealed that Eminem had dropped out of the lead role and that other high-profile names had become involved.

"It could be the next project; that's the goal," Fuqua explained in March of this year. "Eminem is still being a part of it, whether he'll play the lead role or not, we're discussing that. We're talking to several other actors that I like a lot. I like Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner. I've spoken to Bradley about it; I've spoken to Jeremy about it. There are a handful of guys I'd be thrilled to work with. There's Ryan Gosling. But that process has just begun."

Clearly these names would have brought plenty of attention to the project, but now that Gyllenhaal is involved it looks like that attention will still come!

If Jake signs on, he will portray a left-hand boxer whose career takes off just as his life is falling apart.

When speaking about the involvement of Marshall Mathers (Eminem) with this fillm, the director said, "I took meetings with Marshall's producing partners over the past 7 years, looking for something to do together."

"I know he's very selective and doesn't do a lot. But he shared so much of his personal struggle in this raw and very honest album, one that I connected with on a lot of levels. He is very interested in the boxing genre, and it seemed like an apt metaphor, because his own life has been a brawl," he continued. "In a way, this is a continuation of the 8 Mile story, but rather than a literal biography, we are doing a metaphorical narrative of the second chapter of his life. He'll play a world champion boxer who really hits a hard bottom, and has to fight to win back his life for his young daughter. At its core, this is a retelling of his struggles over the last five years of his life, using the boxing analogy. I love that the title refers to Marshall being a lefty, which is to boxing what a white rapper is to hip hop; dangerous, unwanted and completely unorthodox. It's a much harder road for a southpaw than a right-handed boxer."