ANDRE THE GIANT MOVIE IN DEVELOPMENT

Andre the Giant and Vince McMahon

Andre the Giant was one of the biggest pop culture personalities of the 20th century. His legend and legacy live on even after his death in 1993. Variety reports (read the article here) that there will be a movie about Andre's life in and out of the ring. The film will be based on the 2015 graphic novel, Andre the Giant: Closer to Heaven which was written by Brandon Easton and had art by Denis Medri.





Lion Forge Comics, the producers of the graphic novel and producers Scott Steindorf and Dylan Russell are partnering to make the film. Andre's daughter, Robin Christensen-Rousimoff will consult and have given the producers exclusive rights to the film. 

The graphic novel details Andre's rise to fame from his childhood to his debut in the 1960's and how he achieved pop culture icon status in the 70's. It also looks at his declining health in the 1980's while the wrestling business was rising thanks to Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan. 

Many websites are wondering who could play Andre in the live-action film. Personally, I hope the film is done in animation or at least CGI. I don't think there are really any actors today that could capture Andre's personality. 

There is no set release date for the film, but I'm sure when it happens it will be just like Andre himself, larger than life. 

THE PROFESSOR

UFC IS SMARTER THAN WWE

DANIEL CORMIER VS JON JONES

Dana White is the smartest promoter today and his main event for UFC 200 proves that. At UFC 200 current lightweight champion, Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones will collide to determine the undisputed lightweight champion. Jones is currently the interim champion after defeating Ovince St Preux at UFC 197. Cormier and Jones were supposed to meet at UFC 197 for the title but Cormier was injured and had to pull out of the fight. There has been bad blood between the two since UFC 182 in January of 2015 when Jones defeated Cormier to retain the light heavyweight championship.

The factors that make this fight so attractive are simply that you have two guys who genuinely hate each other and are both champions in their own right. You would have to go back to Ali vs. Frazier to find a feud this great in sports. 

So Why would I say that UFC is smarter than WWE? Well, WWE had a similar situation and did not capitalize on it.


Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins

In November of 2015, WWE Champion Seth Rollins was injured during a match and was stripped of the WWE title. WWE held a tournament at Survivor Series 2015 and Roman Reigns became the new champion. I think WWE should have declared Reigns the interim WWE Champion so when Rollins returned their match could be a "champion vs. champion" match which would cause great interest with hardcore and casual fans. WWE did not do that and missed a golden opportunity to bring in fans. 

So UFC is smarter than WWE at least in this instance. Jones vs. Cormier will do great business for the UFC and WWE will continue to watch its ratings rise and fall on a weekly basis. 

Vince McMahon could learn a lot from Dana White. 

THE PROFESSOR