Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins headlines biopic Cus and Mike, set to play Mike Tyson's legendary trainer, Cus D'Amato.

The project is set to follow the story of how D'Amato, who was known as being both tough and brilliant, became a father figure for the wayward Tyson early on in his life that would help put him on the path to being one of the most revered, and controversial, fighters in the sport.

The Patriot Pictures film, which is set to be a character study as well as a sports-biopic, will be directed and written by The Notebook and John Q filmmaker Nick Cassavetes, based on the original screenplay by Desmond Nakano, and the book Mike Tyson: Money, Myth, and Betrayal by Montieth Illingworth.

The film will chart how the tough but brilliant D’Amato became a father-figure to the wayward adolescent Tyson who would go on to become the revered fighter and then a figure of controversy. The search for the young Tyson is underway.

D’Amato, who died in 1985, also trained Floyd Patterson and José Torres. He has long been the source of film interest. Martin Scorsese and Jamie Foxx were trying to thrash out a movie version of the coach-boxer story and Bruce Willis was attached to another biopic. George C. Scott portrayed him in the 1995 HBO movie Tyson.

Source: Press Release