CINEMA FIGHTS ON WITH CINDERELLA'.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

No matter how many different ways it's told, Jim Braddock's Depression-era rise as the working-class hero and unlikely heavyweight boxing champ has all the makings of a Cinderella story.

Hence the title ``Cinderella Man'' - the nickname tagged on Braddock by sports writer Damon Runyon - that's being used for both the movie starring Russell Crowe that hits theaters nationwide today and the book that Jeremy Schaap spent about a year assembling before its release a month ago.

Less than a year after ``Million Dollar Baby'' brought the essence of the sport back to movie audiences (and Academy voters) as a compelling storytelling platform, and not long after unforgettable documentaries on the lives of Jack Johnson (``Unforgivable Blackness'') and Emile Griffith (``Ring of Fire'') revived some more history, the boxing gods have deemed it time for ``Cinderella Man'' to climb into the ring wearing the glass slipper.

``I'm the movie's biggest fan,'' Schaap said Wednesday after attending a screening the night before in New York. ``They really preserved the spirit of the story.''

For Schaap, the 35-year-old ESPN reporter and son of acclaimed sports-book author Dick Schaap, his first book project became more of a fact-driven pursuit of new information, which initially filled far more than the 276 pages (plus 18 more of notes and 15 of index) than the finished product allowed. His focus was more on the paths that led Braddock and Max Baer to their fateful meeting 70 years ago - June 13, 1935 - which meant pouring through newspaper archives, re-examining facts contained in two other books done on Braddock in the late 1930s and interviewing what few surviving family members were left.

Schaap also knew he had a deadline - a movie script on Braddock's life had been bouncing around Hollywood since the late 1990s. Crowe said he had been tracking it, hoping to get the starring role, as it was passed around to Penny Marshall, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg. Crowe eventually brought it to the attention of director Ron Howard when they were working on ``A Beautiful Mind,'' which came out in 2001. After the Academy Awards that year, Harvey Weinstein - then with Miramax - offered Crowe the job, and the movie was off and running, mostly because of Crowe's enthusiasm to do it.

``The movie became a driving force for the book, and with all the people involved, everyone could see it was going to be a good movie,'' said Schaap, who also credits Laura Hillenbrand's literary efforts on ``Seabiscuit'' as reviving the sports-history genre as an inspiration to him.

``The book was initially much longer with more tangents about other fights and stories, but the editors kept it focused. It isn't a comprehensive textbook history but, for the lack of a better word, more of a popular history book that informs and entertains and keeps the readers engaged.''

As a result, Schaap's tale ($24, Houghton Mifflin publishing) focuses on the convergence of Braddock, his trainer Joe Gould and Baer. Howard's movie three-star treatment replaces Baer with Braddock's wife, Mae, played by Renee Zellweger. Paul Giamatti plays Gould.

Howard admits trying to compress all the interesting facets about Braddock and his story into the movie narrative was enough of a challenge, and some things were left to dramatic licensing. But almost equally as important to him was making the fight scenes as realistic as possible. He consulted with Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro from their experience in ``Raging Bull,'' and with Will Smith and Michael Mann, who did ``Ali.''

Add to that, any real boxing fan could see that Crowe (5-foot-11, 172) was more the size of a middleweight than a true heavyweight such as Braddock (6-3, 190).

``I worried in how to execute the boxing for the fight fans,'' Howard said on a conference call Wednesday. ``I knew I'd do the research and find every good camera angle, but I was overthinking it. The fact is I had a great actor who I had already worked with, and if Russell thinks he can do something, he'll deliver.

``As a director, the key to these fights was how to make them compelling and exciting. I started thinking about other films and how to take the audience inside the ring and be alongside Braddock. It was like creating the fire scenes in `Backdraft' or the weightlessness of 'Apollo 13.'''

Howard and Crowe said they sneaked a peek of the audience during a recent screening at the Screen Actors Guild and were satisfied when they saw the reaction from the first 10 rows.

``To see the audience so engaged, covering their faces, grabbing their chairs and waiting for the result to be announced. ... I think we found a common ground with the audience without pandering to them,'' said Crowe.

Angelo Dundee, the famed trainer for Muhammad Ali, became part of the film as the technical advisor and also got some screen time as Braddock's cornerman. While Howard and Crowe hope the storyline of Braddock's love of his family and the valor of the working class comes through, Dundee wants this to inspire more fans to return to the sweet science.

``I guarantee you, we need this movie right now, because we're in trouble in boxing,'' Dundee said. ``We haven't got a heavyweight we can hang our hat on. We haven't got something to excite us. My gut feeling is I'm so happy (Howard and Crowe) did this film. This is so great for boxing, it's getting everyone juiced up.''

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

--The locker-room stuff of the perpetually passionate Pete Carroll in pregame, halftime and postgame speeches again make the release of the latest USC football season-in-review highlight DVD, ``Undisputed,'' worth seeking out ($24.95, Bayview Productions, available at www.uscbookstore.com). Fresh interviews with, among others, Carroll, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, LenDale White and Shaun Cody, and more previously unreleased footage provided by team video coordinator Joe Schrimpl, also highlight the 75-minute presentation narrated by Tim Ryan. As a companion piece, a commercial-free DVD presentation of ABC's coverage of the 2005 National Championship game, in which USC routed Oklahoma at the Orange Bowl, was issued recently ($19.95, www.championshipdvd.com). It includes more Carroll and Leinart all-access coverage.

--ESPN has created an ombudsman position for retired Washington Post assistant managing editor of sports and columnist George Solomon. At least once a month starting July 1, Solomon, who still writes a Sunday sports column for the Post, will have a new column for ESPN.com, scrutinizing network decision-making, coverage and event production. He could start by taking apart ``Around the Horn'' - but then again, his son Aaron is the one who produces the weekday yammerfest.

WHAT CHOKES

--It's understandable that ESPN iced the NHL on renewing its national cable package, trying to get the non-playing league to agree to far below the $60 million per season it previously negotiated as an automatic rights fees figure. But according to two sources quoted in the Toronto Globe & Mail this week, the NHL thinks it might be better off in the long run without ESPN. ``Many of us felt that ESPN was more interested in promoting itself rather than hockey,'' one Globe source said, noting its refusal to carry the World Ice Hockey Championships last month. Another league source complained to the paper that ESPN's acquisition of the NBA and creation of more original dramas meant the NHL ``got squeezed in terms of promotion.'' While it's not out of the question for ESPN to rearrange its lineup and reinsert the NHL if and when a regular season resumes this fall, the league's best options could be to re-establish itself on a market-by-market basis with FSN coverage. NBC, which has a shared-risk deal with the league for over-the-air games, could arrange a similar deal with its USA Network cable partner.

--It'll only cost $49.99 (suggested retail price) when the three-DVD boxed set of ``Tilt'' comes out June 14. The nine-episode ESPN original drama series on the poker underworld in Las Vegas, which aired earlier this year, includes a new alternate ending, outtakes, deleted scenes and actor auditions.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) no caption (``CINDERELLA MAN'')

(2) no caption (``UNDISPUTED'')

Box:

SOUND BYTES (see text)

BY TOM HOFFARTH