An ESPN movie was bound to happen at some point. After all, ESPN is a thing that people have heard of, which fits in quite well with with the latest Hollywood trend of: “this a thing people have heard of, so it must be adapted into a feature film” (see also: Stretch Armstrong). And ESPN: Those Guys Have All the Fun packs a double dose of name recognition. It’s both a movie about ESPN and a movie based off of a book – that book being “ESPN: Those Guys Have All the Fun” by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales.
This harrowing (and apparently, fun-filled) tale of ESPN’s rise to the top of the sports TV world will be directed by Derek Cianfrance, whose previous outings include Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines. With those two films in mind, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see Ryan Gosling play one of the networks many sportscasters (perhaps a young Keith Olbermann?), mumbling a few words about football then staring at camera in vaguely menacing silence.
As of now, there’s no screenplay, nor is there a screenwriter attached to the project. But according to The Wrap, producers from both The Social Network and Fifty Shades of Grey are on board, so expect either a taught thriller about the rise of a media empire or a film with far too much rough sex.
Maybe both.
