‘The Kids Are All Right’ Writer Stuart Blumberg Penned Newest Draft Of Script
The field is getting crowded (terrible pun, fully intentional) for Gerard Butler‘s upcoming soccer comedy “Playing the Field” as 24 Frames reports that Catherine Zeta-Jones and Judy Greer have also joined the film that also includes Uma Thurman, Jessica Biel and Dennis Quaid.
Set to be directed by Gabriele Muccino (”Seven Pounds,” “The Pursuit of Happyness”), the film centers around Butler, who plays a troubled father and former pro soccer player, who tries to make up for lost time by coaching his son’s team. He ends up in trouble when he gets involved with some of the local soccer moms. Biel will play Butler’s ex-wife who is engaged to be married, while Thurman will play a woman on the prowl for Butler. Zeta-Jones plays a hot newscaster, while Greer takes on the role of a lathered-up housewife. Quaid will play a rival soccer coach. The project actually originated as a baseball story called “Confessions of a Little League Coach,” but was reconfigured in a way that will clearly give it much more international appeal.
As the film heads toward cameras, the recently Oscar-nominated “The Kids Are All Right” scribe Stuart Blumberg has penned the latest draft of the script originally written by Robbie Fox (”So I Married An Axe Murderer,” “In the Army Now”) which will hopefully smooth out any of the broader tendencies Fox seems to have.
Football films are a mixed bunch with the bad generally outweighing the good. While “The Damned United” was a decent — if thoroughly workmanlike — footie movie, the last good one was “Bend It Like Beckham” maybe? We won’t even get into that ridiculous “Goal” trilogy of movies which featured less soccer with each installment. But it seems like some good talent are coming together here and if Muccino can keep the Hallmark moments to a minimum, it could be good fun.
