Unless you were living under a rock or had no friends, you might remember that a certain event called the World Cup happened recently and while in the past, it was a sports phenomenon that seemed to bypass North America, things seem to be changing. The U.S. vs Ghana match was the largest watched match by an American audience in history, with 19.4 million viewers tuning in, and with professional soccer moving in leaps and bounds, the popularity of the sport the rest of the world calls football is only set to get bigger. And thus it’s no surprise that you can expect more soccer movies to hit the big screen.
Gerard Butler is in talks to star in “Slide,” a soccer movie that finds him playing “a troubled father trying to make up for lost time by coaching his son’s team — but who finds himself in hot water after some of the local mothers take a little too much of a shine to him (and he to them).” The project actually originated as a baseball story called “Confessions of a Little League Coach” but was reconfigured in way that will clearly give it much more international appeal.
The film will surely work both the funny bone and the tear ducts as “Seven Pounds” and “The Pursuit Of Happyness” director Gabriele Muccino has been attached to the film for a while. There is a script in place by Robbie Fox (“So I Married An Axe Murderer,” “In The Army Now”) which makes for an, uh, eclectic group of talent in the mix for the film.
No word yet on production timelines as details and schedules need to be figured out. The film was initially set up at Sony but no word yet if they’ll hang on to the project or if it will end up elsewhere or become an independent production.
