Movies

By Lauren Sarner

James Bond is going undercover.

Pierce Brosnan looks unrecognizable in new photos for his upcoming sports movie.

In the snaps, Brosnan — who still has a full head of hair and a solid build at 70 — can be seen sporting thinning white hair, more wrinkles than usual and a frailer look to his body than he typically has, as the usually debonair actor slouches in a tracksuit.

The look is for Brosnan’s new movie “Giant,” a boxing movie that tells the story of an important friendship in sports history. 

Brosnan is playing Brendan Ingle — the Irish boxing trainer that helped “Prince” Naseem Hamed rise to become a star. 

The real Ingle died in 2018 at age 77. During his career, in addition to Hamed, he trained three other world champions: Johnny Nelson, Junior Witter and Kell Brook.

Hamed, now 50, is a British-Yemeni former boxer. The peak of his career was from 1992 to 2002. He held several featherweight world championships between 1995 and 2000, and is a celebrated figure in British sports. 

The movie will follow his rise in the boxing world, his less-than-glamorous origins in working class Sheffield and the unorthodox training Ingle put him through, which led to his success. 

Per Deadline, the movie’s official synopsis reads: “Giant is the true story of Hamed’s humble beginnings on the tough working-class streets of Sheffield and his discovery by Ingle, himself a steel industry worker turned boxing trainer. Their unlikely partnership, along with Naz’ unorthodox style, cocky persona and sheer dominance in the ring, propelled them to the top of boxing’s elite and unprecedented levels of global superstardom, all in the face of the rampant Islamophobia and racism of ’80s and ’90s Britain.”

Ingle used to run a gym across the street from the shop that Hamed’s parents owned. The legendary trainer took the future boxer as a protégé when Hamed was just 7 years old. 

Ingle and Hamed were a team until their relationship went south when Hamed was around 25, and the two ultimately split in 1998. 

Amir El-Masry — best known for playing young Muhammed Al-Fayed in “The Crown” — will co-star as Naseem Hamed. 

“Giant” will be directed by Rowan Athale (“Gangs of London”).  

In the photos, Brosnan strolls around in a tracksuit, a far cry from his debonair look that viewers remember from his stint as 007. 

To complete the physical transformation, he also wore glasses and had his hair in a comb-over.