While there’s a lot of excitement centered around the Kiwi filmmaker returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Thor: Love and Thunder, Taika Waititi has one stop along the way at Fox Searchlight with the upcoming sports dramedy Next Goal Wins. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Fassbender (Dark Phoenix) is in talks to star in the film.
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The film, which features a script co-written by Waititi and Iain Morris (What We Do in the Shadows) and based on the 2014 British documentary of the same name, is an underdog sports tale following the national football team of American Samoa their coach, Thomas Rongen, as they try to change the team from a losing squad to a FIFA World Cup-qualifying unit.
Fassbender has entered final talks to star in the film as Rongen, while a casting call has gone out for Fa’afafine actors to make up the cast of team players.
It was announced back in August that Waititi would direct a secret project for Fox Searchlight prior to stepping behind the director’s chair for Thor: Love and Thunder, and while it was unknown at the time the details surrounding the film aside form the fact that it would be produced by Garrett Basch and Andy Serkis, with his production company Imaginarium Productions optioning the rights to the documentary.
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In addition to Next Goal Wins, Waititi is currently out promoting his upcoming Anti-Nazi satirical comedy Jojo Rabbit, in which he stars as an imaginary friend version of Adolf Hitler to a lonely young Hitler youth who discovers his mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. The film, which has earned polarized but generally positive reviews from critics after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival and Fantastic Fest, is set to hit the big screen on October 18.
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