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Star F**ker: Vince McMahon's Gorgeous George biopic could be the most significant WWE Films production since "The Marine 2."

Nikke Finke’s Deadline site is reporting that Vince McMahon’s WWE Studios/Films has made a mid-six-figure outright buy to acquire the 2008 John Capouya book Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-Boy Wrestler Who Created American Popular Culture as source material for a biopic about the infamous wrestler. (What…you thought the timing of Gorgeous George being inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame was coincidental? Now it’s the true story of “WWE Hall of Famer Gorgeous George.”)

Deadline reporter Mike Fleming writes “…WWE Films has committed to a 2011 start date for a film about a journeyman wrestler who remade himself into a preening, vamping villain and became a national TV star at a time when there was little on the boob tube but wrestling and Milton Berle. WWE Films has set John Posey to write the script for a film that will be the last of nine features WWE will generate in less than two years. The fourth, ‘Killing Karma,’ is shooting now. While early WWE films were schlocky action showcases for its spandex stars, WWE Films head Mike Pavone said the company has morphed into a family film factor with better scripts that draw actors like Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Patricia Clarkson, Danny Glover and Parker Posey to work alongside ring fixtures like Triple H, The Big Show and John Cena. Each film costs around $7 million after rebates for location shoots in Louisiana and Pavone said they save about $1 million for each film by never really wrapping production. Crews get a couple weeks rest after each film completes its 20-25 day shoot, and then the next one gets going. A Gorgeous George film was McMahon’s idea, an exception to his unwritten rule not to make pictures about wrestlers. Pavone said George’s flamboyant persona not only set the tone for future stars like Hulk Hogan and The Rock, but also helped Bob Dylan come out of his shell and influenced the likes of Muhammad Ali, James Brown, and Liberace.”

Actually, I believe “Classy” Freddie Blassie influenced Ali more, but for simplicity’s sake, the boxer often credited “Gorgeous George” instead as he was the better known of the flamboyant bleached-blonde wrestlers. At any rate, I’d say this is a positive direction for WWE Films–then again, after “12 Rounds” and the family friendly classic “See No Evil,” there’s nowhere to go but up. George’s story is a true slice of Americana (to use an overdone McMahonism), a rag-to-riches-to-rags story that should garner significant interest from mainstream media and the general public…if they get it right. Using the acclaimed Capouya book as source material shows that McMahon realizes the opportunity here to make a significant film and earn his movie division credibility. Henry Winkler’s “The One and Only” was supposed to be a Gorgeous George biopic, but the rights were tied up; instead, the Carl Reiner-directed film featured an out-of-work actor turned flamboyant pro wrestler.

Not to be outdone, Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey today announced announced plans for a reality series featuring “Gorgeous” Jimmy Garvin and a cross-dressing wrestling bear.

Gorgeous George headlines a May 1958 card in Memphis; he won by disqualification over Angelo Savoldi, who was disqualified for striking his foe with his opponent's perfume gun.

My buddy (and occasional KFR guest columnist) John Keating took this photo of the headstone marking the gravesite of Gorgeous George, who lies alongside the likes of Curly Joe Derita, Oliver Hardy and light-heavyweight champion boxer "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom at the Valhalla Cemetery in North Hollywood.

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