For his next movie to follow Edge Of Tomorrow, Doug Liman is already in active development on the Tom Clancy videogame adaptation Splinter Cell, which has Tom Hardy attached to star. That's only one of several projects that Liman has on the boil, however, and he may just have added another to the list. With the World Cup in full swing, it seems appropriate that he's in talks to direct Victory, a remake of the WWII football favourite **Escape To Victory{
The original film, made in 1981, involves a group of POWs using a propaganda footie match with their German captors as an escape opportunity, with some help from the French Resistance tunnelling in from the sewers outside the Paris ground. John Huston directed, and the film is much loved and remembered for its unusual onscreen mix of actors and professional footballers: Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone co-star with Bobby Moore and Pele. That's not something you see every day.
Gavin O'Connor (Warrior, Pride And Glory) is writing the new version, which is coming together at Warner Bros. "Soccer", as THR point out, has not historically been a sport that Hollywood was much interested in, but with a record 18m American viewers tuning in for USA v Portugal last Sunday, the interest is clearly rising. Never let it be said Hollywood was slowly to capitalise.
Bernie Goldmann and Gianni Nunnari (300) are producing, but we're still some way from hearing the starting whistle.