| In the Most British Film News Story Ever, Steve Coogan has signed on to play sporting legend Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, Blighty's ski-jump Olympic disaster area and national hero, in a biopic (called, of course, Eddie The Eagle) due out next year. Edwards was the first person ever to represent the UK at the ski jump, at the Olympics in Calgary in 1988. Ranked 55th in the world, Edwards was completely self-funded (he worked as a plasterer to make ends meet) and was the sole applicant to represent Blighty. Once there, his weight (nine pounds more than the next contestant), lack of financial support, long-sightedness (which required him to wear glasses that frequently fogged during the competition) and fear of heights rather affected his medal chances, and he finished last. Still, his good spirits and can-do attitude won him fans around the world, leading to a brief pop career and, now, this biopic. John Heyman, producer of films like A Passage to India and father of Harry Potter producer David, has long cherished the idea of an Edwards film and has finally got it off the ground, with Coogan starring. The script's by Simon Kelton (who at one point had Nanny McPhee's Kirk Jones set to direct) with a rewrite by Sean Macaulay, and Declan Lowney is directing. Who's Lowney? Well, he's chiefly a TV comedy director, but since he directed the immortal "A Christmassy Ted" episode of Father Ted (and indeed some of that paragon of sitcoms other high points), we must assume that this will be the greatest film ever. Shooting starts in January, so with a bit of luck we'll see it soon after next year's summer Olympics. |
