A film telling Ronda Rousey’s life story is moving forward at Netflix and now the project has a director attached.
Augustine Frizzell, who is best known for working on the Emmy-winning HBO series Euphoria, has been tapped to direct the biopic based on Rousey’s life. The film is based upon Rousey’s autobiography My Fight/Your Fight as well as her newest book Our Fight, which chronicles her rise to fame first as an Olympic bronze medalist in judo and then eventually becoming one of the biggest stars in the UFC.
Deadline first reported the news.
Rousey celebrated the news on social media saying “another step closer to making this dream a reality.”
In addition to her work on Euphoria, Frizzell also has ties to Netflix after she signed on to direct four of the eight episodes in the upcoming series The Boroughs, which is being produced by Stranger Things creators Ross and Matt Duffer.
Frizzell landed the gig directing Rousey’s still untitled biopic after pitching her idea for the movie and everybody was reportedly blown away by her ideas. It also helps that Frizzell was an avid Rousey fan during her fighting career, and the director actually practices Muay Thai in her spare time.
Originally set up at Paramount, Rousey eventually scanned numerous scripts about her life story, but she ultimately decided to pen the screenplay herself. After working with her agents at Endeavor and the story group department, Rousey reportedly wrote the script about her life in just seven days before turning it over.
Paramount originally bought the rights to Rousey’s first book, but the project languished in development. The rights deal eventually lapsed, which allowed Netflix to swoop in and scoop up the project and now the film features even more of Rousey’s story after she released her second book that chronicles the first loss of her career to Holly Holm, suffering from a severe history of concussions and her eventual move into professional wrestling at WWE.
Hailed as one of the faces of the UFC during the height of her career, Rousey was a massive superstar after she helped usher in women’s MMA to the promotion. She defended her title multiple times while also crossing over into films with appearances in movies such as Entourage and Furious 7.
With a director now in place, and a screenplay already finished, the next step is likely casting where somebody attempts to fill Rousey’s shoes for the production.
