Press Release
Universal Pictures announced today they plan
to make a film of the momentous football
match that took place recently. "Five-One"
is the tentative title of what could be next
year's big summer hit, depicting the American
national soccer team's stunning victory over
Germany.
Nicholas Cage heads an all star cast as the
captain of the brave US Soccer team haunted
by the trauma of losing in the 2000 World
Cup final on penalties and the death of his
wife in a riot caused by English football
hooligans, and finds love in the arms of
a female sports journalist played by Julia
Roberts.
Mel Gibson is the no-nonsense Swedish coach
who leads them to glory, with Keanu Reeves,
Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Will Smith playing
some of Cage's heroic team mates. Jeremy
Irons is set to star as Sir Nigel
Villiers-Smythe, the dastardly Englishman
who coaches the German team and forces them
to play with poisoned-tipped studs to try
and cheat the heroic American team out of
victory.
Director Steven Spielberg defended the film-makers'
decision to focus on the American contribution
to the victory over Germany and the inaccurate
& even imagined events in the story,
saying, "Obviously we've had to take
some artistic licence to make the story work
on film, but I hope that what we produce
will be true to the spirit of what happened
on that famous night"