The Making of Prizefighter Movie Starring Matt Hookings, Russell Crowe and Ray Winstone (2023)

A look behind the scenes of the Amazon Exclusive Movie Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher. See how writer and star of the film Matt Hookings brought together Russell Crowe and Ray Winstone on this passion project that took 10 years to make. Matt first became aware of Jem Belcher’s story in 2012 when he was approached by an older gentleman who thought he was the spitting image of David ‘Bomber’ Pearce, British Heavyweight Champion boxer in 1983. He is the son of David Pearce. The gentleman who approached Matt went on to tell him about an old newspaper article from the 1980’s on his dad. Next to the section on David Pearce was a small sidebar story on a fighter from early 1800’s named Jem Belcher. Prizefighter was born! To begin with Matt just researched Jem’s story, but soon enough found himself in the British library hunting down books, court records and anything else he could get his hands on about Jem Belcher. Jem was the youngest ever champion, he was blind in one eye at 22 and