Focus Features said today it has dated its Jessie Owens biopic Race for April 8, 2016. It also has added William Hurt to the cast opposite Jeremy Irons, Jason Sudeikis, Carice van Houten and Stephan James as Owens.
Hurt will play Jeremiah Mahoney, president of the Amateur Athletic Union, who led efforts to boycott the 1936 Olympics. The casting comes after Hurt was circling the basketball pic Men Of Granite as a possible lead role. He just wrapped The Moon And The Sun opposite Pierce Brosnan. Hurt of course was on the train tracks playing Gregg Allman the day Sarah Jones was killed during production of Midnight Rider; he since has left the project. He is repped by ICM Partners.
Race, helmed by Stephen Hopkins, is now shooting in Montreal and Berlin. Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel penned the script, about the real-life hero who won a record-breaking four Olympic gold medals at the Berlin Olympics.
Hurt will play Jeremiah Mahoney, president of the Amateur Athletic Union, who led efforts to boycott the 1936 Olympics. The casting comes after Hurt was circling the basketball pic Men Of Granite as a possible lead role. He just wrapped The Moon And The Sun opposite Pierce Brosnan. Hurt of course was on the train tracks playing Gregg Allman the day Sarah Jones was killed during production of Midnight Rider; he since has left the project. He is repped by ICM Partners.
Race, helmed by Stephen Hopkins, is now shooting in Montreal and Berlin. Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel penned the script, about the real-life hero who won a record-breaking four Olympic gold medals at the Berlin Olympics.
- 10/1/2014
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline
Van Cliburn
Ansel Elgort ("Fault in our Stars," "Carrie") has signed to play the title role in the biopic "Van Cliburn" for Temple Hill and Crystal Entertainment. Ari Daniel Pinchot, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen will produce.
Van Cliburn was a 23-year-old lanky pianist from Texas who emerged from out of nowhere to win the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow in 1958. It was the first time the tournament was held, and was organized by the Ussr in an effort by Kruschev to lord Soviet superiority over the Us during the height of the cold war. [Source: Deadline]
Brilliance
Talks between Jared Leto and Legendary Pictures for the "Dallas Buyers Club" star to take over from Will Smith in Julius Onah's "Brilliance" have reportedly broken down. Leto, who met with Onah last Monday, reportedly turned down the role last week and puts him back in the running for Marvel's "Doctor Strange...
Ansel Elgort ("Fault in our Stars," "Carrie") has signed to play the title role in the biopic "Van Cliburn" for Temple Hill and Crystal Entertainment. Ari Daniel Pinchot, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen will produce.
Van Cliburn was a 23-year-old lanky pianist from Texas who emerged from out of nowhere to win the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow in 1958. It was the first time the tournament was held, and was organized by the Ussr in an effort by Kruschev to lord Soviet superiority over the Us during the height of the cold war. [Source: Deadline]
Brilliance
Talks between Jared Leto and Legendary Pictures for the "Dallas Buyers Club" star to take over from Will Smith in Julius Onah's "Brilliance" have reportedly broken down. Leto, who met with Onah last Monday, reportedly turned down the role last week and puts him back in the running for Marvel's "Doctor Strange...
- 6/23/2014
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
David Henrie (Wizards Of Waverly Place) is negotiating to join the cast of the basketball film Men Of Granite, joining Shirley MacLaine in the film based on a true story about a bunch of poor immigrant kids — Armenian, Macedonian, Yugoslavian and Hungarian — who triumph over small-town bigotry to win the 1940 state basketball championship. The film, which is currently completing financing, will shoot in Granite City, Il, a steel town across from St. Louis not far from the Mississippi River. I grew up there and went to school with the sons and daughters of the original basketball team, and in that city, […]...
- 6/20/2014
- Deadline
Dwayne Johnson-Cochran is attached to direct Shirley MacLaine and possibly William Hurt (he's interested but nothing official has been announced yet) in the upcoming adaptation of a novel titled Men Of Granite by author Dan Manoyan. The book tells the story of a group of immigrant kids who were Hungarian, Armenian, Yugoslavian, and Macedonian growing up in Granite City, Illinois, who went on to become the 1940 state basketball champions. A teacher, Sophie Prather saw something in the struggling kids and introduced them to the Recreation Center where they began to play basketball together. But as the town was divided economically and socially, it was seemingly...
- 6/2/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The best and most popular sports films are often inspirational true stories. The filmmakers behind the basketball pic formerly known as The Boys Of Lincoln Place, and now called Men Of Granite, will be hoping that holds true for them. First, though, they have to secure financing to start work, and are looking to recruit Shirley MacLaine to star.Unfortunately for those hoping for a real shake-up to the genre, MacLaine won’t be hitting the court, but will play real-life teacher Sophia Prather. She helped to mentor and inspire a group of Armenian immigrant boys who longed to play basketball for their high school. Despite bigotry and prejudice, they ended up becoming state champions in 1940 and were known, in a rather un-pc fashion, as the 'Terrible Turks'.Prather, who had a school named after her in Granite City, Illinois, also brought in the local high school coach to help guide her students,...
- 5/27/2014
- EmpireOnline
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