Studio:
Warner Brothers.
Production Company:
Ixtlan Productions.
Project Phase: Greenlighted.
Who's In It:
Dennis Quaid; Cameron Diaz; Al Pacino; Lauren Holly; Bill Bellamy; Elisabeth Berkeley (Mandy); James Woods
(unconfirmed); Tom Sizemore; Tom Arnold; Ed Burns (unconfirmed); Jamie Foxx.
Who's Making It:
Oliver Stone (Director); John Logan (Screenwriter); Lauren Shuler-Donner, Dan Halsted, Oliver Stone
(Producers).
Premise: A look at the NFL, from the players', coaches' and referees' point of view.
Release Date: Summer 1999.
Comments: The project is an amalgamation of three existing scripts: WB's Playing Hurt, Turner Pictures' Any Given Sunday, and Ixtlan Productions' Monday Night. Interesting, eh?
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
[Page draft submitted by MVP 'Deadpool', a legend in the arena of handheld electronic football video games.]
April 21, 1998... Variety reports that director Oliver Stone has named Dennis Quaid as his starting quarterback in the tentatively titled football film On Any Given Sunday, which could boast an all-pro cast. Quaid would play a Joe Montana-like quarterback legend on the downside of his career who's pressured to play hurt by his coach (Al Pacino) and the fear of being replaced by a hot-shot young phenomenon (Sean "Puffy" Combs). Sources said that a budget trimmed to below $40 million got Warner Bros to approve a November start in Miami. [Originally appeared in Variety; scoop reported by 'Deadpool'.]
September 22, 1998... Taken from Mr. Showbiz: Newsweek reports that Puff Daddy is having some differences of opinion with Oliver Stone, who is directing Puff in his feature film debut as a professional quarterback in the pigskin drama now titled The League.
According to the mag, Puff, who has been training all summer to get his body into gridiron shape, has had enough of Stone's "incessant" schedule changes on the flick, which also stars Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, and Cameron Diaz. What with his multiple music, entrepreneurial, and, if you believe the tabloids, star-studded party commitments, Puff Daddy reportedly couldn't swing the demands.
But Puff reportedly thinks that the pic, from hit-starved Warner Bros., can't be done without him, and so he's not exactly bending over backwards to accommodate the Oscar-winning director. Says the mag, "Hollywood is watching to see which man reshapes his ego."
Stone's publicist tells the magazine that the rap superstar simply doesn't understand the movie business, and warns that the conspiracy-loving director may recast the role. An insider adds, "It's just two guys who won't bend." [Originally appeared in Mr. Showbiz; scoop reported by 'Deadpool'.]
October 16, 1998... Jamie Foxx will apparently replace Puff Daddy as the young up and coming quaterback. [Scoop provided by 'DeadPool']
October 20, 1998... Two comments from the rogues gallery; let's begin with an 'interesting' written thought from this scooper: "Everyone seems to be defecting from this film. First David Duchovny was unable to work around a scheduling conflict, then Ving Rhames left because of Mission:Impossible 2 and now Sean 'Puffy' Combs, who was slated for a big role, has decided that this is not the film he wants to debut in (not sure if it was a scheduling conflict that prompted this decision). I wonder who will drop out next."
And now our second comment, this one we label as 'disturbing': "According to the latest issue of 'Entertainment Weekly', Oliver Stone's The League has been postponed. (pg.61) It also states that Sean 'Puffy' Combs and Ving Rhames had to drop out of the picture because of sheduling conflicts which is probably the reason that it has been postponed." So can any of our readers get the truth to the rumors? What's the real reason Combs and Rhames ditched the pic? [Scoops sent in anonymously.]
November 3, 1998... We've just heard that retired NFL linebacker Lawrence Taylor has auditioned for the part of an aging sports superstar. There's just one slight problem: Taylor broke his paroled and is now in drug rehab. If he is cast, Stone runs the risk of having Taylor in jail when the movie starts rolling in January. [Scoop provided by 'DeadPool'.]
November 22, 1998... The lates word on The League: "Just talked to Dennis Quaid after projecting The Savior (which is when Oliver Stone first approached him with the project). According to him, it's a football picture, Oliver Stone style. I asked him for any details and he smiled and replied that things are starting next week. Production will be in full swing by the end of the month." [Scoop sent in by Lex Denysenko.]