Boston-born actors and The Departed co-stars Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg are set to star in a new film about boxer ‘Irish’ Micky Ward. Paramount Pictures has fast-tracked “The Fighter,” a drama about the Massachusetts-born boxer’s unlikely road to the world lightweight title.

Ward had a series of tough losses to Arturo Gatti that are considered among the best and most brutal bouts of the past 50 years. Wahlberg would play Ward, with Damon taking the role of Danny Ecklund, Ward’s half-brother who battled drugs and the temptation of crime to become the boxer’s trainer.

House executive producer Paul Attanasio is currently working on a rewrite of the script, and if approved by Wahlberg and Damon, the picture would begin shooting in Massachusetts this summer.

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