Joe Weider Comes to the Big Screen

Hollywood Brings Big Budget (and Big Names) to Bodybuilding!

By: Domenic Mauro

Here at MUSCLE INSIDER our highest priority is to see the sport of bodybuilding reach the largest possible audience. So you can imagine our excitement when we got word of a major project brewing in Hollywood that might be the single largest bodybuilding project in the history of the sport!

As first reported in Muscular Development, a major movie deal is under way, and the players are among the Hollywood elite. It all began when popular bodybuilding media insider Dan Solomon had a conversation with longtime friend Steve Lee Jones, a Golden Globe-nominated producer. The conversation focused on the remarkable story of Joe Weider. A few days later, Solomon introduced Jones to Eric Weider to discuss the possibility of securing the rights to Joe’s life story. The meeting went so well that the parties executed a contract to begin production on a big-budget feature film that has Hollywood insiders paying close attention.

How big is this project? According to the MD report, top Hollywood directors Brad Furman has already signed on to write and direct the film. Furman is best known for his critically acclaimed work as director of The Lincoln Lawyer. His films have starred the likes of Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake and Matthew McConaughey.

According to Solomon, who was named co-executive producer, the movie will focus on the earliest and most groundbreaking stages of Joe and his brother Ben’s crusade, an inspiring story dating back to the 1940s in a poor Montreal neighborhood. Rumour has it that legendary trainer/photographer Jimmy Caruso is among those who are providing personal accounts of what they observed during the early years of the Weider journey.

Jones, the lead producer, is also the man responsible for telling the story of Dr. Jack Kevorkian in his 2011 film You Don’t Know Jack, a movie that resulted in a Golden Globe win for lead actor Al Pacino. MUSCLE INSIDER will continue to follow this story!