Fernandez Will Play Boxer Tapia

Shiloh Fernandez ("Red Riding Hood," "Jericho") has been cast as the five-time world champion boxer Johnny Tapia in the Eddie Alcazar-directed indie biopic "Johnny" says THR.

Tapia’s tragic early years - his father was killed while he was still in the womb, while his mother was raped and murdered when he was 8.  These incidents led to a life of drug addiction. Tapia began boxing at age 9 and became a star in the late 1990s, winning titles including the WBO super flyweight and WBO bantamweight. Later in life his brother-in-law and nephew were killed in a car accident on their way to a hospital to visit Tapia who had suffered a cocaine overdose.

Alcazar also made the doco Tapia who died in May

Shooting on the project will kick off next year.