Taika Waititi has been a brilliant and unique voice in the filmmaking arena since he made his directorial debut in 2007 with the oddball rom-com Eagle vs Shark, but he didn’t catch the attention of international audiences until his back-to-back hits What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which landed him the job of directing Thor: Ragnarok. Most recently, he won an Oscar for writing the historical satire, Jojo Rabbit.
Although he has the next Thor movie and a live-action remake of Akira on his docket, the movie that Waititi is currently working on is a soccer comedy entitled Next Goal Wins. This is what we know about the project so far.
It’s Based On A Documentary
Next Goal Wins is being adapted from the documentary of the same name by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison. The doc tells the story of a Dutch-American soccer coach named Thomas Rongen, who was hired to turn the American Samoa national team, long ranked as one of FIFA’s worst teams, into a real contender.
The documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014 before releasing to universally positive reviews, including a rare 100% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes. Brett and Jamison are attached to the feature adaptation as producers.
Michael Fassbender & Elisabeth Moss Lead A Stellar Cast
Michael Fassbender has been cast in the lead role of Thomas Rongen, the Dutch-American coach hired to work with the American Samoa team, while Elisabeth Moss will co-star.
Regular Waititi collaborators, Rachel House and Rhys Darby, play supporting roles, while Call Me By Your Name’s Armie Hammer is also a part of the cast.
Shooting Concluded Before The COVID-19 Pandemic
A lot of exciting upcoming movies, from Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon to Matt Reeves’ The Batman, have faced delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but luckily, Taika Waititi finished shooting Next Goal Wins before the pandemic.
Principal photography began last November, and by January, filming had wrapped and post-production was underway, so aside from the issue of movie theaters reopening, it’s been safe from the wrath of coronavirus.
Waititi Was Attracted To The Project Because He’d Never Done A Sports Movie
In several interviews in which he’s been asked why he decided to direct Next Goal Wins, Taika Waititi has said that he had no interest in sports and had never made a sports movie before, so a sports movie seemed like an interesting challenge.
Waititi has managed to squeeze in the production of Next Goal Wins before fulfilling his obligations to write and direct Thor: Love and Thunder for Marvel.
Iain Morris Co-Wrote The Script With Taika Waititi
Taika Waititi has been credited as the sole writer on every movie he’s ever directed, except for Thor: Ragnarok, which was written by a team hired by Marvel, and What We Do in the Shadows, which he co-wrote (and co-directed) with Jemaine Clement.
But for Next Goal Wins, Waititi has teamed up with a new co-writer, Iain Morris, who co-created The Inbetweeners and is, interestingly enough, working on another football-related comedy this year: the BBC series, The First Team.
The Movie Will Depict The First Transgender Footballer
One of the footballers featured in the documentary Next Goal Wins (and, of course, in Waititi’s film adaptation) is Jaiyah Saelua, the first transgender footballer. Saelua identifies as fa’afafine, a third gender in American Samoan society.
Waititi briefly considered casting Saelua as herself, but instead chose a fa’afafine actor named Kaimana to play the part in what could be a huge leap forward for trans representation.
Andy Serkis Is Attached As An Executive Producer
Andy Serkis’ crowning achievement in cinema will always be his revolutionary work with performance-capture technology, having played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Kong in Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake, and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy.
But he’s also been doing some interesting things behind the camera. He directed Breathe and Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, and he’s directing the Venom sequel, Let There Be Carnage. On top of that, he’s attached to Next Goal Wins as an executive producer.
Searchlight Pictures Is Handling The Movie’s Release
When the time comes for Next Goal Wins to hit theaters, the distribution will be handled by Searchlight Pictures. Taika Waititi is reteaming with the studio after working with them on Jojo Rabbit. However, when he made Jojo Rabbit, the studio was known as Fox Searchlight.
The “Fox” was removed from the name when Disney acquired 21st Century Fox. Jojo Rabbit was one of the last films to be released by Fox Searchlight.
It’ll Be Taika Waititi’s Smallest-Scale Movie For A While
Taika Waititi is making Next Goal Wins on the heels of another small-scale comedy, the quirky anti-fascist satire Jojo Rabbit, but it’ll be his smallest-scale movie for a while. After Next Goal Wins, he’s diving into Thor: Love and Thunder, which will see Jane Foster taking on the mantle of the God of Thunder and Valkyrie searching for a queen to help her run New Asgard.
After that, Waititi is signed on to helm a Star Wars movie and a live-action remake of the groundbreaking anime Akira, so he’ll be in big-budget blockbuster territory for a while after this one.
There’s No Release Date Yet
There’s no official release date yet for Next Goal Wins, but the original plan was to get it into theaters some time in the back end of 2020.
The producers seem to be waiting for more certainty regarding the state of the box office before committing to a release date.
