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| Glamour UK |
On the eve of her upcoming STX comedy, I Feel Pretty, actress and comedienne Amy Schumer is reportedly up to lead a new boxing drama for Voltage Pictures, inspired by the life of former world champion boxer Christy Martin. Anita Busch and Mike Fleming Jr. broke the news at Deadline on Monday with word that screenwriter Katherine Fugate (Valentine’s Day, Xena: Warrior Princess) pen the script for this, her directorial debut.
The report cites the film's central narrative focus on Martin (whose since changed back to her maiden name, Salters) as "a woman who never gives up and who keeps going despite every odd against her"; Highlights in the report detail Martin's struggle with adversity entering into the world of the very sport in which she would not only find herself coined as "The Coalminer's Daughter", but a champion figurehead in breaking the glass ceiling for women in boxing among other accomplishments.
She also came face-to-face against her ex-husband and former trainer Jim Martin who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 for trying to kill her in 2010.
Details from Deadline:
The story is based on the life of Martin (now going by Christy Salters) who grew up in West Virginia earning the nickname in the boxing world of The Coalminer’s Daughter after she won a boxing competition. By 1990, she was in the boxing ring pushing the glass ceiling for women to be allowed to box.
When she walked into the gym to train, a trainer named Jim Martin made sure her ribs were broken to try to get rid of her, but Salters healed and came back in. Eventually, she would go on to marry Martin.
She was the first woman to sign with Don King, the famed boxing promoter, who then started signing her into several pay-per-view fights. She started knocking out her opponents one by one and kept rising up the rungs of the ladder until she reached the top. She maintained that until 2003 when Laila Ali came into the ring with her.
Behind the scenes in Orlando, her life was no picnic with the controlling and violent Martin. Christy Martin, who had been involved with women earlier in her life, fell in love with another woman and decided to leave her husband for her lover.
That pushed Jim Martin to the edge and one night, the anger and violence in him snapped completely. He brutalized her, stabbed and then shot her as his wife fled the house trying to save her own life. She ended up in the hospital (as did he from self-inflicted stab wounds) and then he ended up in prison.
Christy Martin, who eventually changed her name back to her maiden name of Salters, refused to back down and would stand before Jim Martin once again — to testify to put him behind bars.
Alix Madigan, Nicolas Chartier and Alissa Phillips are producing with Jonathan Deckter serving as executive producer.
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