Chris Benoit Biopic To Be Directed By Lexi Alexander

1CK1S · September 2016

Academy Award nominated filmmaker Lexi Alexander (Johnny Flinton) has signed on to direct Crossface: The True Story of Wrestling Superstar Chris Benoit. The announcement was made today by producers Alex A. Ginzburg and Tony Lee of Let It Play.

The film is based on the book “Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit & the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry” by Matthew Randazzo V, who serves as an executive producer alongside Ram Getz. Crossface tells the true story of former WWE superstar Chris Benoit‘s struggles to maintain his family life while the pressures of wrestling caused him to lose control.

Once a well respected champion of the WWE, Benoit murdered his wife and son before taking his own life. Posthumously, Benoit was diagnosed with CTE, severe brain degeneration, believed to be associated with his career as a wrestler. Lexi Alexander will be directing from a script by Jake Goldberger and Sarah Coulter.

In recent years, Alexander had turned her eye to television, helming some well-received episodes of series including Supergirl, Arrow, and Limitless. “I was pretty certain I’d stay in TV rather than returning to the feature world, because the material just seems so much better in TV, especially in drama, but then Crossface came my way,” she said in a statement. “A heartbreaking, true story about the dark side of wrestling… I couldn’t say no to that.”

Alexander earned an Academy Award nomination for her short film, Johnny Flinton,while her feature Green Street Hooligans, starring Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam won both the Best of the Fest and a Special Jury Award at SXSW. In addition to directing, Alexander is a World Karate and Kickboxing Champion and an expert in mixed martial arts.

Alex A. Ginzburg and Tony Lee’s producing credits at Let It Play include Lee Kirk‘s upcoming film Geezer starring Billie Joe Armstrong, Selma Blair, and Judy Greer. They also have Holding Patterns starring Freddie Highmore, Odeya Rush, and Christopher Meloni currently in pre-production. They were executive producers for ? Henry which won the People’s Choice Award in the Midnight Madness category at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

TheGOAT · September 2016

I forgot all about him doing that

The end of this flick is gonna be a ?

fortyacres · September 2016

ckfree · September 2016

this has the potential to be the worst biopic ever im pretty sure that if this gets made that wwe wont cooperate so the filmmakers would have to make up an organization that represents the company in the film -- there were multiple reasons but im sure this played a major role in the decision the company went a more PG route due to the blowback from these events and theres no way they want their name attached to anything associated with benoit directly -- it would expose the ? aspects of the inudstry vince created

jeremy renner would be a good choice for the benoit role but i dont see anyone high profile being cast in this

i just dont see how this will work as a movie at all

itll be a straight to dvd low budget film starring people like brian austin green and tara reid

the most interesting part of the story (at least towards the end) might actually be how everything was handled backstage at raw as the news started to come out

i do have a morbid curiosity about this though