Champion boxer Mike Tyson is stepping back into the acting ring, joining Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan in Black Flies, a dramatic thriller being directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire.
An adaptation of the novel by Shannon Burke, the story is set in the high-wire world of New York City paramedics and takes a look at the toll the job inflicts on their lives.
Sheridan is playing a first-year medic who hits the streets driving an ambulance with a grizzled vet, played by Penn. Choices they make will take them in opposite directions, as the newbie finds his desire to help people challenged to the breaking point. Burke, Ben Mac Brown and Ryan King wrote the script.
Tyson’s role is described as a lead in the movie, and he will play the men’s superior officer.
The film is being produced under the Sculptor Media banner alongside Force Majeure, James Masciello’s creative producing arm, and Projected Picture Works. Shooting is underway in New York City.
Open Road Films has U.S. rights and plans to release Flies theatrically. FilmNation Entertainment is handling international rights. Producers include Warren Goz and Eric Gold of Sculptor, Christopher Kopp and Lucan Toh. Penn is also producing via his Projected Picture Works partners, John Ira Palmer and John Wildermuth.
Considered one of boxing’s greatest athletes, the controversial Tyson has parlayed his knockouts for a multimedia career that includes playing himself in movies such as The Hangover and The Hangover Part II, as well appearances in How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy and Scary Movie V. And while he has appeared in dramatic fashion in occasional boxing or action movies, Flies will be a rare foray into the thespian world.
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