According to Moviehole, Raging Bull II, a sequel to the Best Picture-nominated, 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese, is set to begin production this June, with William Forsythe starring as Jake LaMotta. No word yet on who’ll play Joe Pesci’s part, but I vote Horatio Sanz. The film is said to be based on the book Raging Bull II by Chris Anderson, Sharon McGehee, and Jake LaMotta, and judging by the fact that a new copy goes for $229 and a used copy for $0.19 on Amazon, I’m guessing it wasn’t exactly a best seller.

…the film is said to serve as a companion piece to the Martin Scorsese film and is both a prequel and sequel to the events depicted in the latter. Robert De Niro is not reprising the role of LaMotta. William Forsythe, who played opposite De Niro in “Once Upon a Time in America” (and also reprised De Niro’s Al Capone role for a TV spin-off of “The Untouchables” in the early ’90s), has inherited the gloves. [Not to mention playing Manny Horvitz in the Scorsese-produced Boardwalk Empire]. Director Martin Guigui is currently scouting for…

And then it lists a number of roles. Since there’s no studio listed, and Martin Guigui’s credits include Beneath the Darkness (surprisingly not a Seagal vehicle in which Seagal plays Special Agent Carlo Darkness) and National Lampoon’s Cattle Call, I’m going to go out on a limb and say this will probably be a direct-to-DVD affair. Maybe a TV movie if they’re lucky. Which is good, because I don’t know if I could bear to see a sad rehash of such a classic film. I mean can you imagine anyone other than De Niro delivering lines like “Cut me, Mick!” or “What about my prime, Mick? At least you had a prime! I didn’t have no prime. I didn’t have nothin’!”

Talk about raping a classic.