Mark Wahlberg must be feeling pretty good this week. After shepherding the project for years, his boxing pic “The Fighter” walked away from Sunday night’s Oscars with two major awards under its belt with Christian Bale and Melissa Leo winning Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively. At the box office, the film has been a powerhouse as well, quietly marching to over $100 million worldwide and so, no surprise, Wahlberg is beginning to ruminate on a possible sequel.
“Now we’re gonna talk about doing No. 2,” Wahlberg told Extra on the Oscar red carpet. “We’re gonna do the Ward /Gatti trilogy and make it real.” Wahlberg is referring to the trilogy of fights between Ward and Gatti that were not only the most lucrative of the boxer’s career but also the most vicious; the brutal fights resulted in both fighters being sent to the hospital more than once. Those fights would also be the final bouts of Ward’s career and cinematically speaking, it’s easy to see why Wahlberg would want to wrap up the story of Ward with those epic fights.
Of course, this is all just talk at this point but it’s probably a safe bet that audiences will want to see more of Micky Ward and his eccentric family, particularly as played by Wahlberg, Bale, Leo and Amy Adams. We’ll have to wait and see how this one plays out but to get a taste of just how vicious the Ward/Gatti matches were, check out the highlight reel below.
