Now this may not be a hat-trick to rank alongside Crouchinho’s treble against Arsenal (left peg, right peg, header), or Sir Geoff’s in that game in ’66, but it’s a welcome piece of news nonetheless: Goal!, the football movie following the fortunes of a young Latino cutting his teeth on the world stage, is finally going to become a trilogy.
Milkshake Films – the production company owned by Mike Jefferies and Matt Barrelle – today announced that Goal 3 is going ahead, despite serious concerns about the future of the franchise after Goal II: Living The Dream turned sour at the box office earlier this year. (It still doesn’t have a release date in the States.)
However, the Fifa-affiliated project was always planned and financed as a trilogy, and the third and final part of the adventures of Kuno Becker’s Santiago Munez will be directed by music video helmer Andy Morahan, following in the footsteps of Danny Cannon and Jaume Collet-Sera, who helmed parts one and two, respectively.
Plot details are scarce, although Jefferies told Empire a while back that the movie would follow Santiago – who started off at Newcastle in the first film, before winning the Champions League with Real Madrid in the sequel – to the World Cup, where he would play for, in all likelihood, Argentina. The fact that Milkshake plans to incorporate footage shot at the 2006 World Cup into the film would appear to back this up.
Leo Gregory, JJ Feild and Nick Moran will join returning cast members Becker, Anna Friel and Alessandro Nivola.
Empire has a soft spot for the Goal movies – and not just because set visits for the previous two movies took us to St. James’ Park and the Bernabeu. They’re not great movies by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re enjoyable enough, and are still probably the best stab yet at bringing the beautiful game to the big screen.
It’s only fitting, therefore, that Jefferies – who will co-write and produce this instalment – gets to realise his vision. The movie will shoot in Nottingham for a summer 2008 release – maybe it can fill the void left by England’s soon-to-be-ignominious departure from the European Championships. Should’ve picked Crouchinho, Second Choice Steve!