Eminem will play a boxer in new movie

Rapper Eminem will play the lead role in new movie 'Southpaw' about a world title winning boxer whose world comes crashing down.

Eminem will star as a boxer in a new movie.

The rapper - real name Marshall Mathers - is set to play the lead role in 'Southpaw' which follows a fast-rising boxer who wins the welterweight world title, only to see his world come crashing down following a tragedy and his subsequent attempts to regain glory.

Kurt Sutter will pen the script, partly based on Eminem's struggles with prescription drug addiction, which he documented in his recent album 'Recovery'.

He told Deadline.com: "I took meetings with Marshall's producing partners over the past seven years, looking for something to do together.

"I know he's very selective and doesn't do a lot. But he shared so much of his personal struggle in this raw and very honest album, one that I connected with on a lot of levels.

"He is very interested in the boxing genre, and it seemed like an apt metaphor, because his own life has been a brawl. In a way, this is a continuation of the '8 Mile' story, but rather than a literal biography, we are doing a metaphorical narrative of the second chapter of his life.

At its core, this is a retelling of his struggles over the last five years of his life, using the boxing analogy."

Explaining the title of the movie, which is slang term for a left handed fighter, Kurt admitted he drew parallels with Eminem's career as a rap outsider.

He said: "I love that the title refers to Marshall being a lefty, which is to boxing what a white rapper is to hip hop; dangerous, unwanted and completely unorthodox. It's a much harder road for a southpaw than a right handed boxer."