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Russell Brand is the Gordon Bombay of High School Soccer

by Ethan Anderton
February 11, 2010

There have been countless films with big actors leading a hapless sports team struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds to get to the championship and learn what sportsmanship is all about. Will Ferrell did it recently in Kicking and Screaming, but I don't think anyone did it better than Emilio Estevez as Mighty Ducks coach Gordon Bombay. Now Deadline Hollywood reports Russell Brand will take a crack at it as he's attached to a pitch as a David Beckham-like millionaire soccer star/playboy who gets arrested and must do community service coaching the high school soccer team in a Friday Night Lights-esque town. Read on!

The pitch comes from newcomers William and Scott Bindley (of Madison previously) and was picked up by Warner Bros, who already have Brand starring in a remake of the Dudley Moore classic comedy Arthur. This definitely has potential, but as I've observed after seeing his hosting duties on the MTV Video Music Awards, many people either love or hate Brand's kind of comedy. Sure tons of people loved him in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (which spawned the spin-off film Get Him to the Greek starring Brand as Aldous Snow going to a concert), but his nonchalance in appearing as a sort of British prick and bad boy turns some people off.

Personally, I find Brand to be hilarious, albeit a little unorthodox in his image. Matching his rough-around-the-edge British comedy with a sports obsessed Friday Night Lights-esque town should bring the laughs, that's for sure. Let's just hope this isn't a bad kids movie either. Any fans of Russell Brand out there?

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