Dan Cooper Aug 30, 2016
Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine and a good chunk of Ipswich Town Football Club? It can only be Escape To Victory...
These are strange days indeed for fans of the beautiful game - never before has unbridled hope been so freely mixed with jaded cynicism in the sport we love. The result? A jarring draught indeed, a football concoction that is dizzyingly exhilarating yet morosely taxing, much like the homemade ‘bathroom cocktails’ that my sister used to dare me to drink as a child, odd-tasting brews made from shaving foam and perfume that put hairs on my seven-year old chest whilst presumably lopping years off my life.
That paradoxical blend of fair and foul will be familiar to anybody that follows football these days. International minnows Wales have been running roughshod over half of Europe, and Leicester’s unstoppable charge to the Premiership title against all five thousand...
Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine and a good chunk of Ipswich Town Football Club? It can only be Escape To Victory...
These are strange days indeed for fans of the beautiful game - never before has unbridled hope been so freely mixed with jaded cynicism in the sport we love. The result? A jarring draught indeed, a football concoction that is dizzyingly exhilarating yet morosely taxing, much like the homemade ‘bathroom cocktails’ that my sister used to dare me to drink as a child, odd-tasting brews made from shaving foam and perfume that put hairs on my seven-year old chest whilst presumably lopping years off my life.
That paradoxical blend of fair and foul will be familiar to anybody that follows football these days. International minnows Wales have been running roughshod over half of Europe, and Leicester’s unstoppable charge to the Premiership title against all five thousand...
- 8/18/2016
- Den of Geek
Open thread: Are any current players good enough to rub shoulders with Hollywood on the big screen? Tell what you think below
• Hollywood plans Escape to Victory remake to capitalise on World Cup
Ah, Escape to Victory. Not, perhaps, the film of which director John Huston was most proud, but an entirely satisfactory method of whiling away a dull Sunday afternoon. Plus, of course, the chance to see a sprinkling of assorted football legends (and some not so legendary) trying to mix it with the acting pros.
Much attention, not surprisingly, was focused on the absurdity of Sylvester Stallone on the same football pitch as Pelé, Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles et al. However, football hipsters approvingly noted the presence of several members of the highly-rated Ipswich side of the late 70s and early 80s: John Wark, Russell Osman, Kevin O'Callaghan, Laurie Sivell and Robin Turner.
Continue reading...
• Hollywood plans Escape to Victory remake to capitalise on World Cup
Ah, Escape to Victory. Not, perhaps, the film of which director John Huston was most proud, but an entirely satisfactory method of whiling away a dull Sunday afternoon. Plus, of course, the chance to see a sprinkling of assorted football legends (and some not so legendary) trying to mix it with the acting pros.
Much attention, not surprisingly, was focused on the absurdity of Sylvester Stallone on the same football pitch as Pelé, Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles et al. However, football hipsters approvingly noted the presence of several members of the highly-rated Ipswich side of the late 70s and early 80s: John Wark, Russell Osman, Kevin O'Callaghan, Laurie Sivell and Robin Turner.
Continue reading...
- 6/27/2014
- by Guardian Staff
- The Guardian - Film News
Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman is in talks with Warner Bros to remake Escape to Victory.
Gavin O'Conner, the writer-director of Warrior, in on board to pen the script for the new version, which has been described as a cross between The Monuments Men and hockey film Miracle by The Hollywood Reporter.
The 1981 original, known simply as Victory in the Us, centred on a group of Allied prisoners of war who took part in a football match against a German team.
John Huston's film was loosely inspired by the 'Death Match', a mythologised game between former professional footballers from Dynamo Kyiv and Lokomotyv Kyiv, and a side of German air defence artillery.
Escape to Victory was a modest box office hit in the early '80s but has since grown to cult status thanks to its eclectic cast and repeat TV showings.
Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine...
Gavin O'Conner, the writer-director of Warrior, in on board to pen the script for the new version, which has been described as a cross between The Monuments Men and hockey film Miracle by The Hollywood Reporter.
The 1981 original, known simply as Victory in the Us, centred on a group of Allied prisoners of war who took part in a football match against a German team.
John Huston's film was loosely inspired by the 'Death Match', a mythologised game between former professional footballers from Dynamo Kyiv and Lokomotyv Kyiv, and a side of German air defence artillery.
Escape to Victory was a modest box office hit in the early '80s but has since grown to cult status thanks to its eclectic cast and repeat TV showings.
Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine...
- 6/27/2014
- Digital Spy
Even the best football movies struggle to capture the sport's drama on film. The worst (and there are many) are truly abysmal
Why has cinema found football to be such a tricky customer? Football scenes in film and television are traditionally very awkward affairs, with the "defenders" tip-toeing nervously around the "attackers" as they advance, the goal finally coming via the sort of impractical flying volley you just never see on a real pitch. It's clearly very difficult to let someone score a script-dictated goal while pretending to try to stop them but, at the same time, trying not to look like you're pretending to try to stop them. Perhaps they teach it at Rada, who knows?
Furthermore, filmmakers have the challenge of adding a fictional big-screen gloss to what is already an overwhelmingly camera-friendly and consistently dramatic spectacle in its own right. Real-life football already has its own "script...
Why has cinema found football to be such a tricky customer? Football scenes in film and television are traditionally very awkward affairs, with the "defenders" tip-toeing nervously around the "attackers" as they advance, the goal finally coming via the sort of impractical flying volley you just never see on a real pitch. It's clearly very difficult to let someone score a script-dictated goal while pretending to try to stop them but, at the same time, trying not to look like you're pretending to try to stop them. Perhaps they teach it at Rada, who knows?
Furthermore, filmmakers have the challenge of adding a fictional big-screen gloss to what is already an overwhelmingly camera-friendly and consistently dramatic spectacle in its own right. Real-life football already has its own "script...
- 2/27/2014
- by Adam Hurrey
- The Guardian - Film News
A season of football films in London; a Critics' Circle award for Ken Loach; and a pair of great ape movies
Can I kick it?
As the new football season raises its curtain, the team sheet for the UK's first football film festival is looking tasty. Kicking and Screening arrives in the UK after great success, surprisingly, in New York and will kick off at London's Everyman cinemas on 23 September.
Tom Watt, former EastEnders star and now a respected broadcaster and football historian — well, for all things Arsenal anyway — is on the festival's selection committee and is thrilled by the footage he's been sent. "We've got a beautiful short film, discovered and restored, of the first match ever played in New York," he tells me. "We've got documentaries that go behind the scenes at stadia; the premier of Match 64, about the last World Cup in South Africa; a brilliant doc called The Other Chelsea,...
Can I kick it?
As the new football season raises its curtain, the team sheet for the UK's first football film festival is looking tasty. Kicking and Screening arrives in the UK after great success, surprisingly, in New York and will kick off at London's Everyman cinemas on 23 September.
Tom Watt, former EastEnders star and now a respected broadcaster and football historian — well, for all things Arsenal anyway — is on the festival's selection committee and is thrilled by the footage he's been sent. "We've got a beautiful short film, discovered and restored, of the first match ever played in New York," he tells me. "We've got documentaries that go behind the scenes at stadia; the premier of Match 64, about the last World Cup in South Africa; a brilliant doc called The Other Chelsea,...
- 8/8/2011
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
To Mark the 30th anniversary of Escape To Victory, six of the football legends who starred in the classic war movie will be at next month's Spring Memorabilia Show in Birmingham, organisers have announced.
Ossie Ardiles (pictured), John Wark, Kevin Beattie, Russell Osman, Mike Summerbee and Kevin O'Callaghan will meet fans and sign autographs at the NEC on Saturday March 26, the first day of the show.
Directed by John Huston, Escape To Victory is the story of a group of Allied prisoners of war in WWII who agree to play an exhibition match against a German team, only to get caught up in a Nazi propaganda stunt.
Despite the bias of the match officials and brutal tackling of the opposition, the lads are determined to outplay their captors - and make a break for freedom.
The six legends are:
Ossie Ardiles - Became a cult hero in England after winning...
Ossie Ardiles (pictured), John Wark, Kevin Beattie, Russell Osman, Mike Summerbee and Kevin O'Callaghan will meet fans and sign autographs at the NEC on Saturday March 26, the first day of the show.
Directed by John Huston, Escape To Victory is the story of a group of Allied prisoners of war in WWII who agree to play an exhibition match against a German team, only to get caught up in a Nazi propaganda stunt.
Despite the bias of the match officials and brutal tackling of the opposition, the lads are determined to outplay their captors - and make a break for freedom.
The six legends are:
Ossie Ardiles - Became a cult hero in England after winning...
- 3/3/2011
- by David Bentley
- The Geek Files
Actor Vinnie Jones will star in a remake of director John Huston's WWII feature "Escape To Victory", alongside David Beckham as legendary soccer player 'Bobby Moore'.
Retitled "Victory" for its 1981 North American release, the original film starred Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone as Allied prisoners of war, interned in a German camp, who team up with other prisoners to take on the enemy in a public, propaganda soccer match. Despite losing half-way through the game, the prisoners refuse to go through with a pre-arranged escape plan after one of the players delivers the classic line: "We can win this..."
In addition to Moore, the film also stars football greats Osvaldo Ardiles, Kazimierz Deyna, Paul Van Himst and Pelé. Ipswich Town F.C. players appearing in the film include John Wark, Russell Osman, Laurie Sivell, Robin Turner and Kevin O'Callaghan.
Huston's film was based on the 1961 Hungarian feature...
Retitled "Victory" for its 1981 North American release, the original film starred Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone as Allied prisoners of war, interned in a German camp, who team up with other prisoners to take on the enemy in a public, propaganda soccer match. Despite losing half-way through the game, the prisoners refuse to go through with a pre-arranged escape plan after one of the players delivers the classic line: "We can win this..."
In addition to Moore, the film also stars football greats Osvaldo Ardiles, Kazimierz Deyna, Paul Van Himst and Pelé. Ipswich Town F.C. players appearing in the film include John Wark, Russell Osman, Laurie Sivell, Robin Turner and Kevin O'Callaghan.
Huston's film was based on the 1961 Hungarian feature...
- 3/22/2010
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
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