Last April came the out-of-nowhere casting calls, but now you’ll have to come to terms with the fact that Raging Bull II — a prequel and
sequel to the Martin Scorsese film, with William Forsythe in the role
made famous by Robert De Niro — has actually begun filming. Variety
reports: “[Forsythe] stars as boxing champ Jake LaMotta in his older
years with newcomer Mojean Aria playing the younger version of the
character made famous by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s 1980
classic Raging Bull.” William Forsythe as Jake LaMotta. Yep. It’s happening.
Directed by Martin Guigui (from a script co-written with Rustam Branaman), Raging Bull II takes its inspiration from real life pugilist LaMotta’s book, and no — Scorsese isn’t involved. As if.
Filming is now in progress in Los Angeles, with an interesting
supporting cast that includes Joe Mantegna, Tom Sizemore, Penelope Ann
Miller, Natasha Henstridge, Alicia Witt, Ray Wise, Harry Hamlin, Bill
Bellamy and James Russo, though cast member Juliet Landau, Tweeting a photo of herself in costume as a starlet who has an affair with LaMotta, described many of theirs as cameo appearances.
