The fans are in the seats, the fields have been lined in white and the players are ready for some football action. Can’t you smell it in the air? The early days of Fall are here and we’re in the thick of the hallowed football time of year – high school, college and NFL. Wamg is counting down our 35 favorite football films you need to see before the kickoff of pigskin season. It’s never too early or too late to talk the sport loved by fans everywhere. Many of these true stories can be found on DVD, Blu-ray and Video On Demand. Let us know in the comments section below how you would have ranked your favorite football movies or if we left any on the sidelines.
1. Rudy
“You’re 5 foot nothin’, 100 and nothin’, and you have barely a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there...
1. Rudy
“You’re 5 foot nothin’, 100 and nothin’, and you have barely a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there...
- 9/10/2012
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Aussie actor Ryan Kwanten has a generous hotel boss to thank for his success in Hollywood - he gave the Aussie a room for free for three months so he could chase acting jobs.
The True Blood star was desperate when his cash ran out during a working vacation in the U.S. and a producer pal told him he should do whatever he could to stay.
He recalls, "It was a huge turning point in my life. I came to the states with a five-day ticket; two days in New York to promote a film called The Junction Boys and then three days holiday in L.A.
"I was packed and ready to leave to go back to Australia when I got a call from the executive producer of the film who said, 'You might want to think about sticking around.' I said, 'I don't have money,' and she said, 'Well, you may live to regret it'.
"When I heard it like that I sat on the edge of my bed and thought, 'This is a point in one's life where they either choose to go one way or the other.' I didn't have any money, so I had to figure out a way to afford to stay in L.A.
"I went downstairs and spoke to the manager of the hotel and asked to speak to the owner. He looked at me like I was crazy, which I probably was at that point, and, an hour later, I had a meeting with the owner. I sat him down and said, 'Look, I don't have any money but if you let me stay at the hotel for the next three months free, I will pay you back every red cent and more.'
"He didn't hesitate and said yes and that was the beginning of my American career."
And Kwanten was a man of his word: "He gave me a good rate. It was $55 a night, so, over the course of three months that was quite a lot of money. I have seen him since and I've paid him back.
"It was the Cadillac Hotel in Venice, for any budding actor out there trying to get going."...
The True Blood star was desperate when his cash ran out during a working vacation in the U.S. and a producer pal told him he should do whatever he could to stay.
He recalls, "It was a huge turning point in my life. I came to the states with a five-day ticket; two days in New York to promote a film called The Junction Boys and then three days holiday in L.A.
"I was packed and ready to leave to go back to Australia when I got a call from the executive producer of the film who said, 'You might want to think about sticking around.' I said, 'I don't have money,' and she said, 'Well, you may live to regret it'.
"When I heard it like that I sat on the edge of my bed and thought, 'This is a point in one's life where they either choose to go one way or the other.' I didn't have any money, so I had to figure out a way to afford to stay in L.A.
"I went downstairs and spoke to the manager of the hotel and asked to speak to the owner. He looked at me like I was crazy, which I probably was at that point, and, an hour later, I had a meeting with the owner. I sat him down and said, 'Look, I don't have any money but if you let me stay at the hotel for the next three months free, I will pay you back every red cent and more.'
"He didn't hesitate and said yes and that was the beginning of my American career."
And Kwanten was a man of his word: "He gave me a good rate. It was $55 a night, so, over the course of three months that was quite a lot of money. I have seen him since and I've paid him back.
"It was the Cadillac Hotel in Venice, for any budding actor out there trying to get going."...
- 10/29/2010
- WENN
The Dale Earnhardt biopic 3 drove ESPN to a record rating for its original films. The 9 p.m. Saturday broadcast drew 7.2 million total viewers, besting all the network's previous forays into longform entertainment. Barry Pepper stars as the racing legend who died in a crash during the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. "What these ratings have shown us is that our fans not only will respond to these films, but their appetite is growing," said Mark Shapiro, executive vp programming and production at ESPN, of 3 and the other ESPN Original Entertainment films. ESPN got respectable numbers last year with first efforts A Season on the Brink and The Junction Boys but hit a ratings speed bump in September with Hustle.
- 12/15/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
How does a petite mother of two, a former lieutenant in the Israeli army, someone schooled more in the fine arts of dance and theater than hoops and NASCAR come to be one of the most important players for ESPN? Ever since she produced 2002's The Junction Boys, about college football coaching legend Bear Bryant, Orly Adelson has become ESPN's go-to person for scripted drama. With nearly a dozen series and film projects in various stages of development at ESPN, Adelson's relative lack of sports knowledge is something her creative partners joke about but also see as one of her strengths. Her latest ESPN original telefilm production, Hustle, a Peter Bogdanovich-directed biopic of one of baseball's most controversial figures, Pete Rose, premieres Saturday. "At out first meeting, I liked her right away," recalls Junction Boys writer-director Mike Robe. "I thought to myself of the irony of the situation: Here I am, a lifelong sports junkie, signing up to write a story about American college football with this elegant woman from Israel who I'm going to be working with, and I don't know if she knows a gridiron from a waffle iron."...
- 9/24/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
ESPN said Wednesday that it has revved up development on original telefilms with a slate that includes a biopic of late auto-racing star Dale Earnhardt. During its portion of the Television Critics Assn. winter press tour in Hollywood, the sports network also reaffirmed its commitment to producing original series but deferred any decision on the renewal of its controversial football drama Playmakers. Scheduled to bow in late summer, 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story, chronicling the life of the NASCAR star who died in a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500, will be ESPN's third original longform production, following 2002's A Season on the Brink and The Junction Boys.
NEW YORK -- Lisa Cholodenko has signed on to direct the Showtime original film Cavedweller. The indie writer-director, whose credits include Laurel Canyon and High Art, will be at the helm when Cavedweller goes into production later this year. Final casting decisions are still being made, but Kyra Sedgwick will star and serve as co-executive producer along with Orly Adelson (The Junction Boys) and David Yudain (Desert Saints). Cavedweller is an adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Dorothy Allison, who also wrote Bastard Out of Carolina, another book that went on to become a Showtime film. The novel chronicles the return of a rock singer (Sedgwick) to her hometown in Georgia, where her kids remained with the abusive husband she left behind. Sedgwick's husband, Kevin Bacon, also will appear in Cavedweller in a supporting role. Showtime declined comment.
- 5/29/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- If you have ever dreamed of becoming a SportsCenter anchor, ESPN is ready to give you a chance. The cable network is developing Dream Job, a primetime reality series that will invite aspiring sportscasters to submit audition tapes for consideration in an American Idol-style competition. ESPN will give the winner a one-year gig on SportsCenter. Dream is just one of several projects ESPN is developing on the original programming front under its ESPN Original Entertainment banner. In its first stab at a scripted series, ESPN has scheduled the behind-the-scenes football drama Playmakers for August. "Instead of sitting on our ratings success, we're investing in new properties," said executive vp programming and production Mark Shapiro, who admitted that the stakes are high. "We're going to give the series business a shot, but there's little room for failure here," he said. "We want to go one-for-one." After two well-received original movies, A Season on the Brink and The Junction Boys, ESPN in December will team with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct) on The Ice Bowl. A Pete Rose biopic could soon follow.
- 4/25/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- If you have ever dreamed of becoming a SportsCenter anchor, ESPN is ready to give you a chance. The cable network is developing Dream Job, a primetime reality series that will invite aspiring sportscasters to submit audition tapes for consideration in an American Idol-style competition. ESPN will give the winner a one-year gig on SportsCenter. Dream is just one of several projects ESPN is developing on the original programming front under its ESPN Original Entertainment banner. In its first stab at a scripted series, ESPN has scheduled the behind-the-scenes football drama Playmakers for August. "Instead of sitting on our ratings success, we're investing in new properties," said executive vp programming and production Mark Shapiro, who admitted that the stakes are high. "We're going to give the series business a shot, but there's little room for failure here," he said. "We want to go one-for-one." After two well-received original movies, A Season on the Brink and The Junction Boys, ESPN in December will team with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct) on The Ice Bowl. A Pete Rose biopic could soon follow.
- 4/25/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tom Berenger has been tapped to do a four-episode arc on NBC's drama Third Watch. He will play a famous, hard-living author/journalist who becomes romantically involved with Kim Zambrano (Kim Raver) in the series from John Wells Prods. and Warner Bros. Television. Berenger is replacing Tom Selleck, who was originally slated to do the arc but has pulled out, focusing his attention on his comedy pilot for NBC that was recently picked up. Berenger was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Platoon. His credits also include the feature Training Day, Hallmark Channel's miniseries Johnson County War and ESPN's telefilm Junction Boys. The actor, who stars in USA Network's pilot Peacemakers, is repped by CAA.
- 3/12/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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