Sam Claflin to play Robin Friday in biopic

Sam Claflin is set to play the role of legendary footballer Robin Friday in biopic. Muderball director Henry-Alex Rubin will helm the film. The Hunger Games star will play the controversial and wild English soccer legend. Friday played for Reading and Cardiff in the ‘70s and died tragically at the young age of 38. The film is based on the biography ‘The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw: The Robin Friday Story’, which was co-written by Paolo Hewitt.

The script for the film has been written by Julian Stone and Paolo Hewitt. The duo will also produce the film along with Mike Yiung. “This will not just be a film about cheering a goal, but about tears and laughs and music and silence and anger and love … because this working-class hero with outrageous talent lived it all. It was a time before the age of privileged athletes, a time when the fans lived next door to their heroes. As Robin Friday walked down the streets of the 70’s, everybody wanted to be him. But quite frankly, no one else had the balls”, said Stone.

“Robin Friday’s legacy continues to live on today and is a story tailor-made for the big screen given the larger-than-life energy which Friday brought to the sport and his life. The talented Sam Claflin is the perfect actor to fill the shoes of this British legend due to his background in the sport prior to pursuing his acting career”, added de Barros of Fortitude International. Friday’s short-lived, but brilliant talent continues to be remembered by his fans, and in 2004 he was voted ‘all time cult hero’, in a BBC poll. He was just as well known for his wild lifestyle off the field and was named #1 in a Channel 4 list of soccer Bad Boys.

Source: huffingtonpost.co.uk