Racer Rafael Estevez and the Fast & Furious franchise
The Fast & Furious franchise started with a movie about street racing, first released to the public in 2001, and has now become one of the most popular cinematic universes in the world. The series follows the breathtaking races of drivers Dom Toretto (played by Vin Diesel), Brian O’Conner (played by Paul Walker), Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), Letty Ortiz ( Michelle Rodriguez), Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson)…
Few people know that the characters of Fast & Furious are inspired by real-life racers. In May 1998, journalist Ken Li published an article called Racer X in the New York Daily News and Vibe, telling the story of underground racers on the streets of New York. The central character of the article is the 30-year-old Dominican native Rafael Estevez with a burning passion for speed. Rafael and street racers find ways to “customize” cars with a variety of engines, including components and equipment taken from machines from World War II.
Ken Li and Rafael Estevez
Director Rob Cohen shared that he read an article about Rafael Estevez and then persuaded Universal to buy the content rights from Ken Li to make the hit Fast & Furious franchise.
Rugby player Charley Taylor and the movie ‘Jerry Maguire’
Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire (1996)
The film Jerry Maguire (1996) with the participation of Tom Cruise, Renée Zellweger, Cuba Gooding Jr., Regina King is one of the most impressive melodrama – drama – sports movies of all time; Nominated for 5 Oscars, including Best Picture. The film follows a sports agent named Jerry Maguire (played by Tom Cruise), who accompanies rugby player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) from zero to the peak of his career.
Athlete Charley Taylor
Jerry Maguire takes the prototype of a real character, Leigh William Steinberg, who is a sports representative who cooperates with and accompanies more than 300 professional athletes of football, baseball, basketball, boxing … And Rod Tidwell is a character based on the famous athlete Charley Taylor, who participated in 13 seasons of the National Rugby Championship (also known as the National Football League – NFL).
Boxer Muhammad Ali and the movie franchise ‘Rocky’ – ‘Creed’
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (1942 – 2016) is one of the greatest sports figures of the 20th Century. He is known as an outstanding boxer, having won a gold medal at the Olympics. Muhammad Ali is said to be the model of the Apollo Creed character in the blockbuster Rocky – released in 1976, voted the best sports movie of all time. The film revolves around the confrontation of two boxers Rocky (played by Sylvester Stallone) and Apollo Creed (played by Carl Weathers).
Movie Rocky
The success of the Rocky brand with 6 hit movies has opened the Creed movie brand with 3 films respectively released in 2015, 2018 and 2023 equally brilliant. It is a spin-off aka spin-off series, inspired by the original Rocky franchise; with the main character is Adonis Johnson, nicknamed Donnie (played by Michael B. Jordan), son of boxer Apollo Creed, now joining the boxing world under the guidance of the legendary Rocky.
Donnie Creed (Michael B. Jordan) and Rocky (Sylvester Stallone)
Following the success of the first part Creed (received a 95% fresh tomato rating on review site Rotten Tomatoes, 82/100 on Metacritic) and Creed II (with an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes); The third part called Creed III: Legendary Fist was released in March of this year.
The content of Part III will revolve around the confrontation of the main character Donnie Creed with his childhood friend, former boxing prodigy Damian “Dame” Anderson played by Jonathan Majors (the actor who played Kang in the television series Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum World) undertakes. The third movie currently has an impressive score of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.3/10 on IMDB.
Donnie Creed (Michael B. Jordan) and Dame Anderson (Jonathan Majors)
Actor Michael B. Jordan shared that: This will be a movie that makes you cry, you laugh and cheer for the characters. I want the audience to feel excited as they leave the theater and declare, “My God! An emotional journey!”
CREED III: LEGENDARY Fist will officially come to Vietnamese audiences from March 24, 2023 at cinemas nationwide.