reported by Melissa G., CyberScreenwriter.com

Red Bird Cinema will produce a feature film based on the life story of boxing legend, Sugar Ray Leonard, and has enlisted Pulitzer Prize winning author H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger to write the screenplay. Bissinger recently wrote the New York Bestseller, Three Nights In August, about baseball and 2006 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinal manager Tony La Russa. Actor/writer Kevin Pollak did the screenplay adaptation, which Red Bird Cinema is also producing.

Putting the great Sugar Ray Leonard's life story to pen is Pulitzer Prize winning author, H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger. Bissinger is perhaps best known for his book Friday Night Lights, selling more than 2 million copies and adapted for a movie in 2004 and an NBC series in 2006. Bissinger has also written A Prayer for the City and is also a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine.

Bissinger's work in Hollywood includes a year as a co-producer and writer for the ABC series "NYPD Blue." He has written screenplays and teleplays for such major studios as Warner Brothers, Walt Disney and HBO, and has worked with such noted directors as Alan Pakula, Gregory Hoblit, Todd Field and Peter Berg.

Red Bird Cinema has partnered with Sandlot Venture Group, a new investment company focused on film production, who will help provide the financing for the project. Sandlot Venture Group is currently launching a $25 million private equity fund with a development and production model intended to provide financing in the entertainment area.