England soccer captain David Beckham is set to kick off his film career with a movie trilogy called "Goal!," about a player from Los Angeles who signs for British club Newcastle United. The Real Madrid midfielder, one of the world's biggest sports stars, will be joined by team-mates Zinedine Zidane and Raul in the $100 million venture directed by Danny Cannon, according to Variety magazine's Web site. The films would mark Beckham's first major part in a feature film. He plays himself and will be seen in all three segments of the trilogy. "It's no secret that I want to be involved in youth coaching when I finally hang up my boots, and I believe that the 'Goal' trilogy will provide a positive message to kids around the world," Beckham told Variety. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=762&e=1&u=/nm/20041109/en_nm/people_beckham_film_dc Will millions of U.S. kids be inspired with dreams of playing in Europe's big leagues? Will Beckham's acting career last as long as Brian Bosworth's? Will there be a hot full frontal nudity scene with Posh Spice? Discuss. Mods, please put wherever appropriate. In the trash, for example.
A more substantial story at: http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1346465,00.html excerpt: "Directing the movie is Briton Danny Cannon (a keen footballer himself), who was brought on board at the last minute after Michael Winterbottom amicably withdrew from the £56m films this summer after it became clear that his pseudo-documentary style was out of kilter with the glossier product required by the producers." In other words, the original director left because he wouldn't be reduced to producing the cheezy tripe demanded for international gristmill success. No, there will be no nudity, and no complicated plot. This will have to be simplified PG stuff for distribution around the world. It will make Green Machine look like an overly-intellectual doctoral thesis. We can only hope that the football footge on the pitch will look somewhat realistic, the major fault with most soccer films. --------------------------------------------------------------------- In other soccer-player-cum-actor news, Ronaldinho has been given a part as Jar Jar Binks little brother in the latest sequel of Star Wars.