Taika Waititi, director of both Thor: Ragnarok and JoJo Rabbit, has brand new movie on the way slated to have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
The new film, Next Goal Wins, is sports comedy centered around the true story of an American Samoa soccer team who goes from a collection of losers to FIFA material. As Hollywood Reporter states, it draws much from the 2014 documentary of the same name, which followed the aforementioned team.
Headlining the film are Michael Fassbender and Will Arnett, with Fassbender playing head coach Thomas Rongen and Arnett as soccer executive Alex Magnussen. The movie was originally set to premiere in April of this year but had to be pushed back due to controversies surrounding former cast member Armie Hammer. Hammer was originally set to play Arnett’s role, but he left the project after being openly accused of sexual assault, subsequently pushing the film back with reshoots of his scenes.
Waititi had previously appeared at the Toronto Film Festival with his 2019 outing, JoJo Rabbit, which won the audience award for that year. Cameron Bailey, CEO of the festival, said, “We’re thrilled to welcome Taika back to the Festival and share his audacious take on the most popular sport in the world.”
Next Goal Wins opens to audiences on November 17th, 2023.
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