bellah
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 | | Subject: George Weah, The Movie Coming to a Theater Near You: Biopic in the Works Mon Jun 28, 2010 7:30 am | |
| A big-screen motion picture depicting the life of Liberian football legend George Manneh Weah is in the works. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that actor Dermot Mulroney is sliding right into his next directing project about the life and times of the Liberian football legend-turned politician
 | Actor Dermott Mulroney, an avid soccer fan, says after a year of negotiations, a deal was finally reached for Weah's life story in Miami, where the former soccer star is attending college.
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According to the report, Principal photography just wrapped on Mulroney's directorial debut, 'Love Wedding Marriage,' which saw the actor in familiar romantic comedy territory. A Weah biopic would be quite a departure in tone.
"Man can't live on romantic comedies alone," Mulroney, an avid soccer fan, told the Reporter. "It was a good starter kit for me as a director. But if I'm actually going to have legs as a director, I need to do the same things as I've done as actor: one of everything." After a year of negotiations, a deal was finally reached for Weah's life story in Miami, where the former soccer star is attending college.
Weah's story, which Mulroney claimed to be a "doozy ... It's got politics, war, love and soccer," is an ambitious undertaking for Mulroney's sophomore effort as a director. For more than 20 years, Weah was a phenomenon in the world soccer arena. He became the only player in the history of the sport to earn the FIFA World Player of the Year, European Footballer of the Year and African Footballer of the Year in the same year (1995). Sports journalists across the globe even came together and declared Weah the African Player of the Century. Despite all his successes, Weah has never qualified to play in a World Cup.
While the details have not been unveiled about who will portray Weah, there appears to be some historical errors in play even before Mulroney take his first shot. The report states that Weah, having grown up in the slums of Liberia, never achieved a high level of formal education. “He used his clout and celebrity at home to convince child soldiers to disarm and help take down a bloody dictator, Charles Taylor. His 2005 unsuccessful bid for the presidency led to great personal tragedy at the hands of his opponents, including the burning of his mansion and rapes of members of his family.”
 | | Weah, the Presidential candidate |
It is not clear whether the report is confusing the incident which occurred during the Taylor era with the 2005 elections as there is not recorded incident of Weah’s home being burned or family raped in the aftermath of the 2005 presidential elections.
The report also states that Liberia also changed its laws requiring a college degree to become president. “With the next presidential election looming in 2011, it's not hard to imagine why Weah is hard at work securing his degree. The timing couldn't be better for Mulroney, either. The results of that election will not only make for a fitting ending to the film, but will also likely shape the tone of the project,” according to the report. Weah was recently entangled in controversy when reports surfaced that he was questioned and on the premises of his childhood friend James Bestman when Bestman was arrested recently in Laurel, Maryland. Weah admitted being questioned but only for 45 seconds. Bestman is still in the custody of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Culled from Frontpage Africa....... | |
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