Photo courtesy of the Moody College of Communication
A new film starring Matthew McConaughey as the coach of an inspirational girls soccer team from the Dallas area has been sidelined just six weeks before production.
According to Deadline, Skydance Productions canceled Dallas Sting due to "an impropriety that Skydance and producers were aware of."
The Hollywood Reporter specifies that "Skydance and the producers received disturbing allegations surrounding aspects of the true story on which the drama was based."
McConaughey is also out, according to both news outlets.
He was set to star as Bill Kinder, the coach of a team of Dallas-area high school students who, in 1984, traveled to China and beat teams from China, Italy, and Australia. Kinder had no prior coaching experience at the time. The team made history in the 1980s as the first American soccer team to win a major international tournament, and the film reportedly was to be set against the historical backdrop of the United States' foreign relations efforts with China.
Actress Kaitlyn Dever had signed on to play McConaughey's daughter.
Production was set to begin in October in New Orleans.
As Deadline writer Mike Fleming, Jr. writes,
This had the making of a truly inspiring sports film, and I understand that the Skydance production chiefs and the producers are heartbroken to let this one go. But the tight timeline and the allegations left them little choice. Kari Skogland was set to direct the film developed by Skydance and Berlanti Schechter Productions. Skydance was financing. Apple, which has an overall deal with Skydance, had a first look at the film, but it is unclear if any commitment was made by thestreamer.
Full details of the allegations that Skydance found had not been revealed as of September 14, but, Deadline says, they were serious enough to get them to pull out of the movie.
Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Sebastian Hansen in A Minecraft Movie.
One reason the majority of movies based on video games have failed is because their filmmakers didn’t understand how to translate the appeal of the game to the relatively-limited storytelling ability of film. Players can often spend hundreds of hours in the world of a video game, and trying to condense that experience down into 90-120 minutes is close to an impossible task.
Minecraft, a sandbox adventure game which contains countless possibilities for its players, turns out to be the exact right type of game to turn into a movie, at least in the proper hands. A Minecraft Movie is completely and gloriously ridiculous from beginning to end, with the filmmakers - led by director Jared Hess - understanding that to make a movie about a game in which (almost) anything can happen, you have to match that energy.
And so they tell an uproarious story in which Steve (Jack Black) is a miner on Earth who discovers a portal to the Overworld (aka the world of Minecraft) where everything from animals to plants to food is made up of blocks. After getting trapped in the Nether, a dangerous, hell-like dimension, he sends his trusty dog back to Earth with the cube that opens the portal between Earth and the Overworld.
Through a hilarious series of events too detailed to properly explain here, the cube falls into the hands of ‘80s video game legend Garett Garrison (Jason Momoa). When Henry (Sebastian Hansen), a 14-year-old who’s just moved to town with his sister, Natalie (Emma Myers), discovers the cube at Garett’s store, the two of them - along with Natalie and local realtor Dawn (Danielle Brooks) - get pulled into the Overworld as well.
Usually when a film is written by a team of five writers, as is the case here, it’s a sign that the screenplay will be less than cohesive. While they didn’t manage to come up with a comprehensible story, they do fill the running time with as many gags as possible, a strategy that pays off handsomely. Taking the creative ethos of Minecraft and amplifying it immeasurably, the film features too many off-the-wall jokes to know where to begin.
The connections between the human characters are about as random as can be, and yet due to the nature of the “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” approach, they develop a strong bond nonetheless. Steve and Garett are both pompous characters whose egos are the sources for much of their humor. Henry and Natalie bring the heart, while Dawn complements the group well despite not really fitting in with everyone else.
Of course, the whole point of making A Minecraft Movie is to pay tribute to the game, and they are able to throw plenty of bones to the gamers while still entertaining anyone who’s never played it. They incorporate the essentials of the game like building massive structures, crafting items, and interacting with creatures (aka mobs), but in such a fun and engaging way that it doesn’t really matter if a lot of it doesn’t make complete sense.
Black’s style of acting is one you either love or hate, and this might be the epitome of a Jack Black performance. He dials up virtually every line he delivers, a manic tour-de-force that sets the tone for everyone and everything else in the film. Momoa is also great, delving into comedy in a way he rarely has before and succeeding mightily. Hansen and Myers both work well, giving the film the youthful feel it required, and while Brooks is mostly along for the ride, she gets in a few good scenes of her own.
Could A Minecraft Movie now take the throne as the best adaptation of a video game ever? That’s purely subjective, but the way Hess and his team put the pedal to the metal from minute one and never let up, it certainly deserves to be part of the conversation. It’s a silly, fast-moving romp that works both as an homage to the game and as a stand-alone movie.
