Luna
Winterbottom
LONDON -- Michael Winterbottom has come aboard to direct "Goal!," the first film in a trilogy about the rise of a Latino soccer star.
The lead will be played by Diego Luna ("Y tu mama tambien"), with Stellan Skarsgard as the coach of Newcastle United, the English team he joins in the first movie. Principal photography will start in April.
Saga, originated by producers Mike Jefferies and Matt Barrelle of Milkshake Films, is co-produced by Winterbottom and Andrew Eaton's shingle Revolution, plus Bruce Davey and Mel Gibson's Icon.
Icon will release the trilogy in the U.K. and Australia, and it is handling sales in all other territories including North America. A U.S. deal is imminent, with Fox among those reportedly circling.
Trilogy is an underdog tale about a young Hispanic soccer player from Los Angeles pursuing a dream of global soccer stardom.
In the first movie, he breaks through with English Premier League club Newcastle. In the second, a couple of years later, he gets transferred to Euro champs Real Madrid in Spain. Trilogy climaxes with his appearance for his country (either Argentina or Spain) at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Under the innovative partnership deals struck by Milkshake with soccer governing body Fifa and sponsors such as Adidas, the final part of the trilogy is scheduled for release in June 2006 to coincide with the World Cup.
That means all three pics must be completed under some time pressure. That's one of the reasons the producers have turned to Winterbottom, who has a rep as Blighty's fastest-moving director.
He will work with scripter Don McPherson to shoot the movie on the run, similar to the way he collaborated with Tony Grisoni on the semi-improvised Afghan refugee pic "In This World."
Winterbottom is due to deliver the first film for release in February, with shooting of the second and third already to be under way before the first film comes out.
It is not yet clear whether Winterbottom will direct the second and third movies. "He's definitely doing one, probably two and hopefully three," said Jefferies.
Lawrence Bender was earlier touted as one of the producers on the project and remains an exec producer.
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