Ali : The Movie and the Man

Generously illustrated with movie stills, historical photos, and posters in a stunning four-color book design—the only official tie-in to the new film, starring Will Smith and directed by Michael Mann (The Insider). Includes over 200 images, the screenplay, behind-the-scenes stories, and writings by Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, Wilfred Sheed, David Remnick, Thomas Hauser, and Pete Hamill, among others. Filmed in five months in six cities throughout America and Africa, Ali focuses on 1964-1974, from the night in Miami when 23-year-old Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title, to the stunning upset in Africa ten years later when the fighter regained his crown from a hugely favored George Foreman. With the real Muhammad Ali involved in the filmmaking, as well as his close friend photographer Howard Bingham (who is also a character in the film), Ali takes us into the ring, the strategy sessions, the bedrooms, and straight into the mind and heart of the man who, as biographer Thomas Hauser wrote, "has become a legend in his own lifetime." Superstar Will Smith trained for nearly a full year before the cameras rolled, transforming himself from a 185-pound actor to a 220-pound athlete.