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New Line's Inspirational Sports Biopic Wins One for 'Mulkey'

by Ethan Anderton
January 15, 2010

Everyone knows you're supposed to win one for "The Gipper." But soon sports teams might be inspired to win one for "Mulkey" as Variety reports Mike Tollin (Radio, Summer Catch) will direct Mulkey, the story of a firefighter named Louis Mulkey who spent his spare time as an assistant high school basketball coach in South Carolina before he and eight of his brave colleagues perished in a 2007 fire. After his death the local fire department presented the team with a custom memorial fire helmet which was placed on the bench for each of the team's games in the following season which saw them win their first ever state championship.

Not to trample on a dead man's grave, but I can't help but think of the implications that Mulkey is somehow responsible for the team's win in a cheesy 6th Man kind of way. I'm thinking of a ghost creating chaos and craziness on the basketball court with all sorts of supernatural shenanigans. However, with Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivele (Ali) writing the script, this is sure to be quite a hard hitting inspirational sports drama and nothing like a screwball sports comedy. The film is part of ESPN's ambitious foray into feature films which has also seen a boost from their recent documentary about 30 for 30, an unprecedented series featuring 30 of today's finest storytellers telling thirty remarkable stories from the ESPN era. Anyone still a sucker for inspirational sports flicks?

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4 Comments

"I'm thinking of a ghost creating chaos and craziness on the basketball court with all sorts of supernatural shenanigans." Why would you even say that about this story? This has the potential to be a great movie because of the awesome true story. Cheesy? I don't think so. No other comments, just goes to show what crowd you guys get. If it's not a comic book adaptation or a nerdy sci--fi movie then nobody cares.

branden on Jan 15, 2010

Hey, if you don't like it, go to Russia!

Mike on Jan 15, 2010

@ #1, Branden, If you'll read more carefully instead of immediately hopping on your high horse and speeding away to get atop your pedestal, you'll see that it was only a humorous knee-jerk thought, and not a serious speculation on the story. The film itself, especially because of the writers involved, looks to be a great inspirational sports drama. And let me be very clear: I love the inspirational sports drama. Remember the Titans, Miracle, Field of Dreams, The Express, and yes, even The Blind Side...all decent flicks. So before you hasty generalize a bunch of people into comic book/sci-fi nerds, maybe try not to lump yourself in with the rest of the Internet in being impulsively insulting short-fused crazies. Regards,

Ethan Anderton on Jan 15, 2010

that's my high school! Mulkey was a great guy, and that team was awesome. Fun fact: the guy that led the state championship basketball team was A.J. Green, top receiver for the Georgia Bulldogs

Jake on Jan 17, 2010

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