Yahoo Movies ‘The Fighter’ Scribes To Co-Write Movie About Leicester City’s Hollywood-Ending English Soccer Season
EXCLUSIVE: Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson, the Oscar-nominated screenwriters of The Fighter and who also penned the upcoming Boston Marathon bombing pic Patriots Day, have found a new project to kick around. The have been set to write a screenplay with Goal: The Dream Begins scribe Adrian Butchart about Leicester City, the club which despite 5000-to-1 odds won the English Premier League title this year overcoming perennial monied powerhouses like Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool.
Simon Egan and Gareth Ellis-Unwin of Bedlam Productions (The King’s Speech) are producing with Butchart’s Knightsbridge Films.
The pic will focus on striker Jamie Vardy, who four years earlier had been working in a factory before joining Leicester City, scoring in a Premier League-record 11 consecutive matches during the stretch to help the team clinch the title, topping the table by 10 points over second-place Arsenal. Vardy scored 24 goals on the season (and just signed a new four-year deal with the club after overtures from said Arsenal, so he’s staying put). The title run is considered one of the most improbable ever in the sport, like if the No. 16 seed at the NCAA Tournament kept winning, and winning, and winning all the way to the championship.
“Gareth and I are thrilled to be able to welcome Paul and Eric to the team,” Egan said. “They were nominated by the Academy for The Fighter in same year that The King’s Speech was in contention and we saw and heard firsthand how highly respected and talented they both are. We very much wanted to find a way we might work together. Brilliant writers who bring another layer of top-tier talent to this project.”
Tamasy was born in England and has played soccer his whole life — he now plays on a BAFTA rec league team in Los Angeles. “Eric and I had just signed with Josh Varney at 42 for representation in the UK when Josh asked me if there was a story out there I really wanted to tell. Without hesitation I said, ‘Jamie Vardy’s and Leicester’s unlikely climb to the top of the Premier League.’ The story represents everything we love in a movie.”
Added Johnson: “This is more than a sports film, it’s a once-in- a-lifetime story about the fulfillment of impossible dreams and the strength of the human spirit. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun. I’m extremely excited and proud to be a part of it.”
Tamasy and Johnson, whose credits also include Disney’s The Finest Hours, are repped by CAA, the Gotham Group, 42 and attorney George Davis.
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