Damned United to be Managed by SPC

There were no pick-up announcements that were made by Sony Picture Classics with regards to Tom Hoopers’ The Damned United since the true story attracted Sony Pictures early on, pushing the distributor to grab the world rights to the football/soccer pic. To be released on on the 25th of September (a week after SPC releases Coco Avant Chanel) this features Michel Sheen playing yet again another real person role (he of course played British Prime Minister Tony Blair, not once but soon to be twice and was the one that duked it out with a former U.S. president in both the play, and feature film versions of Frost/Nixon.

Adapted from David Peace’s novel and written by Peter Morgan, this is about the legendary English soccer coach Brian Clough (Sheen). Tim Spall will take the role of his sidekick Peter Taylor, Colm Meaney will play rival coach Don Revie, and Jim Broadbent will be the chairman of Derby County, one of the clubs that Clough coached to success. Set in 1974 but flashing back to the 1960s, about Clough’s ill-fated 44-day reign as coach of Leeds United, then one of England’s most successful soccer teams. The flamboyant, unconventional Clough became a coach after his brilliant playing career was cut short by injury. He lifted small-time club Derby to the championship by sheer force of personality, but when he took over at Leeds, a team he publicly despised for their cynical style, he fell out spectacularly with the senior players and was swiftly fired.

From what we can tell in the trailer is that the framing contributes to accessing the character’s mindset and the 60’s/70’s coloring looks good both off and on the field and I’m thinking that the reason why I might enjoy this film is that it becomes not a question of not being up for the challenge but not being the right person for that challenge.

I haven’t seen any of Tom Hooper’s work – most recently he directed HBO items: telefilm Longford with Jim Broadbent and the John Adams mini series. Did anyone see the 2004 Hilary Swank starring drama Red Dust? I was wondering what our U.K. readers thought about The Damned United? Is this something we should definitely mark down on our calenders?