Despite hopping from genre to genre in his career, Ridley Scott has rarely touched upon sports (aside from tangentially in White Squall and Gladiator). That may change if he goes ahead with a new potential project, a still-developing look at the growing controversy around head injuries in American Football.
It a hot topic across the pond at the moment, albeit one not limited to the gridiron, as there have been concerns about rugby, hockey and the proper version of football we enjoy in the UK. In the past, head injuries have been largely ignored or hidden in the service of keeping the business side of the sport going, but now the lawsuits are growing as more and more former and current players speak out about the long-term damage they’ve suffered from years of tough collisions. Even more tragically, several formers players who have committed suicide did so with explicit instructions that their brains be studied to look at the damage done.
So far, Scott has only got as far as taking meetings with writers to discuss ideas for a script on the subject, so this will likely be a ways in the future, assuming it crystalizes to the director’s satisfaction. Deadline, though, reports that he’s hoping to make it his next film after he finishes directing Christian Bale, Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley and Joel Edgerton in Exodus. Meanwhile, The Counsellor will hit cinemas on November 15.