Runner Runner and The Lincoln Lawyer director Brad Furman has reportedly signed on to write and direct a movie about the life of Joe Weider and his brother Ben. The project will tell the story of how two brothers from a humble background turned bodybuilding into the flourishing industry that it is today. The film, tentatively titled Bigger, is set to be produced byBee Holder Productions.
Furman certainly has some incredible source material to work with. Joe Weider was born in Montreal in the early 1920s. Inspired by a book about fitness and weight training that he found in a book shop, he developed a passion for weightlifting. “Weights made me strong, made me secure in myself, and really made me feel special,” he said of the connection that would change his life and the lives of the millions who share his philosophy.
As well as being a dedicated practitioner (using improvised equipment back in the early days, including a bar made from flywheels welded to the axle from a train) Weider decided that he wanted to write about his passion and inspire people to give it a try.
Weider launched what would become a publishing empire in 1940, when he published his first mimeographed issue of Your Physique in his parents’ living room at a cost of $7. Your Physique would undergo several transformations over ensuing decades, relaunching as Muscle Builder, then merging with another Weider title called Muscle Power, until finally being dubbed Muscle & Fitness in 1980, 40 years after it launched. In the years between then and now, Joe would create FLEX, Men’s Fitness, SHAPE, Muscle & Fitness Hers, Fit Pregnancy, and Natural Health, all of which populate newsstands the world over today.
It has been reported that the movie will also look at how Joe and Ben Weider founded the International Federation of Bodybuilders (now called the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness) in 1946. The IFBB started Mr. Olympia in 1965 and the rest, as they say, is history. Yep, there should be enough there to tell one hell of a story!
