Seems they want to cash in on American interest in soccer recently. 18.2 million people tuned in to watch the USA and Portugal World Cup match - the highest ever viewing figure for football in the country.
Whilst looking around on subject of the movie found a funny snippet. Stallone was the main star of the original but he was acting as a Canadian. Since he was the star he wanted to score the winning goal. Only one problem, he was the Goalkeeper ! So he got to save a penalty instead.
Will be interesting to see how Hollywood adapts the story as no American POWS were in the original Escape to Victory movie. If the soccer players playing against the Germans are Americans in the 1940's it will be a stretch to make it believable.
Would American viewers prefer an American soccer team or a mixed European team (with possibly some American actors) ?
Cameo roles for Michael Caine and Stallone ? Not sure what as but how about as fans watching the game.
Not sure if I would be too bothered to watch it in the cinema but will be interesting to see cast and how change the story.
From Wiki :
Original movie based on the 1962 Hungarian film drama Két félidő a pokolban ("Two half-times in Hell"), which was directed by Zoltán Fábri and won the critics' award at the 1962 Boston Cinema Festival.
The film was inspired by the now discredited story of the so-called Death Match in which FC Dynamo Kyiv defeated German soldiers while Ukraine was occupied by German troops in World War II. According to myth, as a result of their victory, the Ukrainians were all shot. The true story is considerably more complex, as the team played a series of matches against German teams, emerging victorious in all of them, before any of them were sent to prison camps by the Gestapo. Only four players were documented as being killed by the Germans, and their deaths were long after the dates of the matches they had won.
