Joshua Jackson and Kate Bosworth Set To Star in 1959 High School Football Film BRADDOCK
Game1 and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson’s production company West2East Empire are developing and sports film titled Braddock, which is based on Greg Nichols’ book Striking Gridiron. It tells the story of the 1959 Braddock High School football team.
At the time when Pennsylvania found itself in the throes of a crippling steel strike, “the Braddock High School football team provided hope to a small downtrodden steel town with their remarkable play and dogged pursuit of the all-time national high school winning streak, under the oversee of Coach Chuck Klausing.”
Joshua Jackson will take on the role of Coach Chuck Klausing, with Kate Bosworth starring alongside him as his wife, Joann Klausing. Gregory Caruso will adapt as the writer and director. I love a good sports movie and this one has a great story to tell. Wilson said in a statement:
“As a professional athlete, I know the power that sports can have in the world beyond the playing field. I am truly excited to be a part of this extraordinary project, because it reminds us that sports can shape and inspire not just people, but entire communities in a way that very few other things can.”
Basil Iwanyk, co-CEO of Game1 added:
“We are thrilled to partner with Gregory and Russell on such an amazing and emotional project. These are the kinds of stories that the world needs to see and hear right now – ones filled with hope, perseverance, and inspiration. Gregory nailed it with the script, it is going to make for a great film.”
Caruso went on to say:
“I’m incredibly motivated and honored to be working alongside such a great group of people. Coach Klausing and his Braddock Tigers provided a much-needed escape from the harsh realities of life at the time. Now, more than ever, I believe audiences yearn for positive, truthful, and gritty stories that remind us not only of where we’ve been, but how we’ve responded and endured together.”
Here’s a more detailed description of the story from the book:
In the summer of 1959, most of the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania---along with half a million steel workers around the country---went on strike in the longest labor stoppage in American history. With no paychecks coming in, the families of Braddock looked to its football team for inspiration.
The Braddock Tigers had played for five amazing seasons, a total of 45 games, without a single loss. Heading into the fall of ‘59, this team from just outside Pittsburgh, whose games members of the Steelers would drop by to watch, needed just eight victories to break the national record for consecutive wins. Sports Illustrated and other media descended upon the banks of the Monongahela River to profile the team and its revered head coach, future Hall of Famer Chuck Klausing, who molded his boys into winners while helping to effect the racial integration of his squad. While the townspeople bet their last dollars on the Tigers, young black players like Ray Henderson hoped that the record would be a ticket to college and spare them from life in the mills alongside their fathers. In Striking Gridiron, author Greg Nichols recounts every detail of Braddock's incredible sixth, undefeated season---from the brutal weeks of summer training camp to the season's final play that defined the team's legacy. In the words of Klausing himself, "Greg Nichols couldn't have written it better if he'd been on the sidelines with us."
But even more than the story of a triumphant season, Nichols's narrative is an intimate chronicle of small-town America during the hardest of times. Striking Gridiron takes us from the sidelines and stands on game day into the school hallways, onto the street corners, and into the very homes of Braddock to reveal a beleaguered blue-collar town from a bygone era---and the striking workers whose strength was mirrored by the football heroics of steel-town boys on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons.
Does this sound like a film that you might enjoy watching?
Source: Deadline