Dead or Alive (by José Padilha, Jiu-jitsu Biopic)

[Cremildo]

Brazilian jiu-jitsu will get its origin story told by José Padilha, the filmmaker behind the police thriller Elite Squad and Netflix’s crime drama Narcos.

Padilha will direct Dead or Alive, being made by Netflix, and will write the script with Peter Maguire. Padilha will also produce the period feature with Greg Silverman and his Stampede banner.

Dead or Alive centers on two men, Mitsuyo Maeda and Rickson Gracie as the story tells an epic tale that stretches from 1800-era Japan to present day US and Japan as it focuses on two men from vastly different worlds who developed and spread a mixed martial art that became known as Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Maeda was a sort of martial arts ambassador who travelled from Japan to the Americas to showcase the fighting art, arriving in Brazil via a circus in 1914. At one demonstration he met Carlos Gracie, with the two becoming master and student. Gracie later taught his brothers, eventually creating a family dynasty of MMA practitioners and champions that lasts to this day. Rickson Gracie, Carlos Gracie's nephew, is a now-retired fighter who won numerous champions and is an inductee to the MMA Hall of Fame. SOURCE