Former UFC champion and WWE star Ronda Rousey has been successful in many areas of her work. She is now taking on a new challenge as a screenwriter. Deadline has learned that Rousey has agreed to have Netflix change the script for her biopic. Because she wrote both My Fight/Your Fight and Our Fight, which she wrote with her sister Maria Burns Ortiz, the story would be based on both books. A source says Chernin Entertainment is likely to produce, even though the deal isn’t official yet.
Netflix wouldn’t say anything.
The project was first planned at Paramount in 2015, when the company bought the rights to her first book, My Fight/Your Fight. After a few changes at the studio, the rights finally expired. Netflix eventually bought them after Michelle Evans, an executive at Netflix and a longtime Rousey fan, pushed for the project. Rousey has since written a second memoir called Our Fight that goes into even more depth about her life. This is interesting because a lot of time has passed since the first memoir came out. Additional information has emerged, revealing that she experienced a defeat in her initial bout against Holly Holm, which led her to contemplate a distressing course of action. It also talks about her past with concussions before she started MMA and her troubled relationship with her longtime coach, Edmond Tarverdyan.
Taking Control: Rousey Fights for Her Story
Biopics are often written by professional screenwriters like Mark Bomback for Paramount’s My Fight/Your Fight. What makes this case special is how hard she worked to make sure she was the one who developed this script. According to sources, Rousey worked hard to adapt her autobiography into a script companies would want to make.
Rousey was introduced to Adam Novak, a WME story group executive who finds source material for clients, to improve her film writing. Novak had been with the agency for 33 years and was a seasoned veteran. She would send her scripts for review and give her feedback and criticism. She learned about organization and techniques for screenwriting by reading 30 to 40 scripts. Eventually, she wrote her screenplay.
After months of working in coverage, her long-time WME managers, who had been with her before UFC, told her she had to write a script about her life. She completed it alone in seven days, and her agents couldn’t believe it was her first publication. Chernin swiftly scheduled a director meeting when the script was released. After that one sitting down, they signed on as producers.
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Blind Date with a Knockout Script: Rousey Wins Over Netflix
The filmmakers tore out the script’s front page before meeting Netflix because they thought they had something extraordinary, according to insiders. So, the execs went in without bias and didn’t find out who authored it until they finished the script. After reading the story, executives called to find out who wrote it right away. When they found out it was Rousey, they made an offer right away.
Originally, when the project was at Paramount, she was supposed to also star in it. But now, sources say she only plans to write the script, and in the coming months, she will start meeting with possible actors to play Rousey.
