U.S PREMIERE OF HBO FILMS “MUHAMMAD ALI’S GREATEST FIGHT”

October 2013: The U.S. premiere of HBO Films’ MUHAMMAD ALI’S GREATEST FIGHT was presented by HBO and the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville on Wednesday, October 2.

Film Synopsis: When Ali was drafted into the Vietnam War at the height of his boxing career, his principled claim to conscientious objector status on religious grounds led to a lengthy legal battle that rattled the U.S. judicial system right up to the highest court in the land. After being widely denounced for his refusal to be drafted in the U.S. military, Ali was stripped of his title, banned from the sport and lost nearly four years of his boxing prime to legal battles. Set in 1971, the film goes behind closed doors of the United States Supreme Court as the nine Supreme Court Justices decide the outcome of Muhammad Ali’s landmark appeal.

Directed by Academy Award® nominee Stephen Frears (“The Queen”) and written by Shawn Slovo (“A World Apart”), MUHAMMAD ALI’S GREATEST FIGHT is executive produced by Emmy® winner Frank Doelger (HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and “The Gathering Storm”), Emmy® winner Tracey Scoffield (HBO’s “The Gathering Storm”) and Jonathan Cameron. The story is inspired by the book of the same name by longtime Muhammad Ali photographer/biographer Howard Bingham.

Star Studded Cast: The star-studded cast includes Academy Award® winner Christopher Plummer (“Beginners”) as Supreme Court Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan II, Academy Award® nominee Frank Langella (“Frost/Nixon”) as Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Benjamin Walker (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) as Kevin Connolly, one of Justice Harlan’s clerks. Other cast includes Emmy® nominee Danny Glover (“Freedom Song”) as Justice Thurgood Marshall, Golden Globe nominee Ed Begley Jr. as Justice Harry Blackmun and Barry Levinson as Justice Potter Stewart.

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