THE WOLVERINE Director to Helm Joe Namath Biopic
The Wolverine director James Mangold is in talks to direct a biopic based on the life of the football quarterback legend Joe Namath. This would be a great project for the director to take on, as he's also the director of films such as Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, and Girl Interrupted. The guy seems like he's talented enough to take on all kinds of different genres.
I enjoy a good sports movie, but I'm not really that familiar with sports in general, so I won't be starting a sports website anytime soon. I do know the basic details about Namath, but I don't know the details of his life. This is what THR had to say about him though:
Namath is one of the most revered figures in New York sports history, having spent most of his career with the New York Jets in the 1960s and 1970s after playing college football at the University of Alabama for coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. He's also one of the most colorful. Known for wearing fur coats on the sidelines (a practice that was later banned), the rifle-armed quarterback celebrated winning the Super Bowl in a huge upset by opening Bachelors III, a popular bar on New York City's Upper East Side.
Upon his retirement from football in 1977, the likable and widely recognizable Namath made guest appearances on numerous television shows and starred in several films. On the sports side, the Hall of Famer was a commentator for ABC's Monday Night Football.
Namath was a notorious party boy and womanizer, hence the nickname "Broadway Joe." In early 2004, Namath checked himself into rehab after an infamous incident in which he told ESPN interviewer Suzy Kolber during live coverage of a Jets game, "I want to kiss you. I couldn't care less about the team struggling."
Regardless of my lack of knowledge in sports... like I said, I do love a good sports movie. If Mangold takes on this project, I'm sure he'll do a great job bringing Namath's story to the big screen.