It gives me great pleasure to reveal (and for once this isn’t a joke) that BBC Films has finally announced, today, the production of a screenplay based on my book The Perfect Distance, an account of the rivalry between Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe.
Thus, a quarter of a century after their heyday, arguably the greatest rivalry in athletics history is finally destined for the silver screen, sometime before the Olympic Games in London 2012, a sports festival whose staging in Britain’s capital city owes much to the efforts of Seb, now Lord Coe.
Three years ago, in his then regular Guardian column, Steve Cram, the man who took over the world record mantle from Coe and Ovett, was bemoaning the lack of any sort of cinematic vehicle for the trio’s feats, which might help kick-start the largely moribund British middle distance scene, and incite the current crop of milers to emulate their illustrious predecessors.
Cram was musing on what had revived US middle and long distance running, and wondered, ‘in 1997 and 1998 two movies about the American athletic icon Steve Prefontaine hit the screens in the US. Pre died tragically in a car crash arguably at the height of his powers and although he never won an Olympic medal he has long carried the flame of American running dreams. No doubt one or two of those performing so well now had sat in their multiplex as youngsters and taken it all in. I’m not totally convinced it would get funding from UK Sport but a remake of the Three Musketeers set on the tracks of Europe in the 1980s might just do the trick for us. You never know.’
Cram, who I referred to in my book as the Third Man need wait and wonder no longer.
Shortly after Cram’s article, I was contacted by experienced producers Joanna Anderson and Vicky Licorish. Operating as AL Films, they subsequently optioned The Perfect Distance, and ultimately (these things take time) engaged Hollywood-based British screenwriter, Will Davies to produce a treatment. Following its delivery a month ago, BBC Films green-lighted the script, and yesterday authorised this announcement.
BBC Films sprints ahead with Ovett and Coe
London, UK – BBC Films and AL Films are developing a film together about the celebrated Olympic rivalry between Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe, arguably the greatest athletics rivalry of all time.
The film is due to be released prior to London 2012 Olympics. Joanna Anderson and Vicky Licorish of AL Films, the producers behind BBC 1′s recent hit Small Island, have signed up LA-based Brit writer William Davies (Flushed Away, Johnny English, Twins) to write the screenplay. “Will is a fantastic writer who is a keen sportsman. He has been fired up by this story which means so much to a UK audience and is the British Olympic story which also gripped the US,” says Anderson.
Coe and Ovett ran in the Moscow and LA Olympics; they dominated world athletics for several years and had very contrasting personalities. “You were either an Ovett person or a Coe person” says Vicky Licorish, “and that’s what makes it such a great character piece as well.”
AL Films optioned the acclaimed account of their rivalry ‘The Perfect Distance’ by respected sports journalist Pat Butcher, who had unprecedented access to Coe and Ovett, as well as those closest to them.
Christine Langan, Creative Director BBC Films, says, “This is a gem of a story, about British sporting life and more. Will’s take on it is very exhilarating and BBC Films is excited to be developing it with him and AL Films.”
There’s still a long way to go, but stay tuned to Globerunner, for progress reports.
congrats Pat.
That’s fantastic news. The Perfect Distance is among the best sports books ever written, and the Coe & Ovett story is one perfectly suited to the big screen. If you lived through that era, you could never forget the high drama and the palpable excitement that greeted each of their outings – both separately and together. As Pat so deftly illustrated in The Perfect Distance, it was a socio-cultural phenomenon as much as sporting phenomenon. I can’t wait to see it all again. Congratulations, Pat. – James O’Brien
Many congratulations Pat. All the ingredients are there for an inspiring movie based upon The Perfect Distance.
Hope to see you cast in a cameo role!
Jim Harvey.
Well done. It gives those who lived through their era, singly and together, the chance to re-live a wondrous period of track. And to those who did not they will be able understand our continued excitement.
Congratulations. I really look forward to watch the film
Great and highly deserved news. Are they casting for members of BAWA (British Athletics Writers’ Association)?
Andy Edwards
Congratulations, Pat. Long overdue, but perfectly timed.
Exciting news, for all running writers. It shows again that there is a big and growing market for our sport and its stories, despite the reluctance of publishers to see it.
I’m picking Johnny Depp to play Pat Butcher.
Roger
Brilliant news! Being involved in the North American running scene I can say that the Pre movies have really helped get kids in the door, and glamorized gutsy running, now look at all the flying runners coming out of there.. all the best in making this film and I hope we see a similar effect in the UK a few years down the road!
Interesting news, Pat. Hope it comes to fruition, though I am pretty sure that some scenes will inevitably irritate some of us purists.
Who is going to play the threesome, I wonder? How about Jude Law (or Hugh Grant) as Seb Coe, Josh Hartnett (or Ben Affleck) as Steve Ovett and Brad Pitt (or Matt Damon) as Steve Cram?
Danny de Vito would make a good Andy Norman if only he was a trifle taller.
I suspect, however, that the final movie will unveil a cast of unknowns as the above mentioned would certainly demand appearance fees beyond even what Usain Bolt can command.
Good luck with the project. I hope it’s worthy of your excellent book.
Congratulations Pat. Great book, deserves to become a great movie.
Very pleased for you, Pat. Exciting stuff, and I hope it turns out to be a great success.
I think the younger Jim Carrey would have had the physical attributes to play Coe. But maybe that’s why I’m not a casting director.
Very Good News and certainly hope that it would spark interest in some younger couch potatoes and video game addicts who may have running potential!
Hopefully the film will cover their early development before their later rivalry? and highlight what work you need to do to get to where they were in the first place ( OK so enormous talent does help but not the be all and end all..)
Don’t think any of the aforementioned actors should even be considered!
What I’d like to know is who will play Frank Horwill ( don’t write him out! ) and Kirk Dumpleton ( please don’t let them change the name! )
Congratulations, Pat.
Gracias
Looking forward seeing this “epic”. Hope they find realistic actors to play the key roles, although I wouldn’t offer any ideas. Don’t want to see a casting like Charles Aznavour playing a marathon runner!!!
I’m old enough to also remember a similar earlier “working class v toff” battle on the tracks of the world – Pirie v Chattaway. Perhaps not quite at the level of Coe & Ovett, as TV was not the media it is now, but even then, you were either a Pirie man or Chattaway.
Good news for those of a certain age. Now, how about the Alf Tupper story? Suggested title: Toffs I’ve Run ‘Em!
Excellent news, congratulations Pat. Much deserved and long overdue.
Hello fans,
Since Butcher is involved I am sure this project will at least start off with a high degree of integrity however my fear is by the time this film is locked it will fall into the same lame grouping as practically every sports film thus far produced.
As an American teen at the time I scoured the papers and read whatever bits I could to keep up with the latest rumblings of the two runners but I somehow missed the upstairs downstairs angle that was apparently a big deal in the UK. But then of course it would be? I remember as a young athletics hopeful hearing an almost weekly update on the exchange of world record status in either the mile or that mostly foreign distance, 1500 meters. Fortunately living near the Canadian border I could see a bit more on CBC tv than the average American but athletics coverage was a lunar landscape when it came to in depth knowledge of the sport.
This movie will be good for fans however I can’t see this attempt to reconnect with populist appeal accomplishing this goal. Heck in the USA we missed the big Coe and Ovett show, that being the 1980 games so how can people in the USA really connect with this story? Whatever. I will watch the movie but I don’t think it will play at the local multiplex.
Instead I will more than likely purchase it online and archive the DVD (?) next to the two Prefontaine movies that are gathering dust on my shelf. Maybe they can include as dvd extras a bunch of the Pat Butcher reports such as his “Arabian Knights” piece on Hicham El Guerrouj. That would be good. Face it folks..it’s going to take more than a movie to get the youth back into the sport…and it was NOT the Pre movies that inspired the latest crop of USA competitors but more like the NCAA rule changes in recruiting foreign elites…but that is a different story for another time.
The Perfect Distance, for many of us, will make the Perfect Film – congratulations Pat!!! I’m a bit fed up with media folk saying that “All of us in UK at that time were either Coe or Ovett fans”. Well, actually no!
A great number of us were utterly delighted that we had two such fabulous athletes. Indeed, I remember, during a FInal Year sports science lecture at Birmingham Unov telling the year that “Right now, in UK we have the World 1500m champion, the World 1500m record holder and the Olympic 1500m champion – and all three are different runners – third being Cramm of course – and you will never see the like again in your lifetimes, so savour it now”. And there were a number of others – Tom McKean, Elliot, Graham Williamson (who could have been so great) – and more!! Anyway, Congratulations again Pat. Yours in Sport, Aye, Craig.
Congratulations Pat, you have well written book.
The Perfect Distance is among the best sports books ever written, and the Coe & Ovett story is one perfectly suited to the big screen. If you lived through that era, you could never forget the high drama and the palpable excitement that greeted each of their outings – both separately and together.
Looks like there are already fans out there waiting for this movie – should be great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHFywRg3x-k