Fever Pitch was the first of Nick's books to be adapted into a film. It was released by Working Title/Channel 4 films in 1997
Nick wrote the screenplay himself, translating his award-winning memoir into a romantic comedy starring the recent Mr Darcy, Colin Firth.
Firth plays Paul Ashworth, English teacher and Arsenal fan. The research he did for the role was pretty extensive. As producer Amanda Posey explained, 'He got it into his head that he needed to be able to list ALL of the Arsenal players of the 1970 team. In a scene where Paul is in his classroom, he actually wrote a list of them on the blackboard. Nick came by, was impressed and immediately asked, 'WHO has done THAT?' and Colin proudly answered that he had'
Director David Evans was keen to dismiss suggestions that Fever Pitch might be a football film: 'There are no actors in shorts in Fever Pitch,' he told Empire magazine. 'The only people who play football are professional footballers and there is no attempt to blend them with actors the way the genre always seems to do. This is a romantic comedy. The plot of this film is boy meets girl ...'
Watch out for Nick's cameo in the film as the coach of a rival school's football team
Nick and the film's producer Amanda Posey have two children together |
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View the trailer
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119114/trailers
Empire Review, including an interview with Colin Firth
http://www.grin.net/~meluchie/articles/97EmpireUK04.html
IMDB Site
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119114 |
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20th Century Fox have remade Fever Pitch with new stars and a new story. In this US-centric version, the main character's fanatical devotion is no longer to football ('soccer') but to baseball, and the team is the perennially cursed Boston Red Sox
Because the Boston Red Sox won the World Series on 27th October 2004, the script (particularly the ending) had to be rewritten during filming
After the last play of the game during the Red Sox celebrations, stars Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon were filmed celebrating together on the field. A brief shot of the filming could be seen live on the Fox broadcast of the World Series.
Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel wrote the screenplay. Their previous films include EdTV, Parenthood, and Splash
The Farrelly Brothers direct. Their credits include Shallow Hal, There's Something about Mary and Me, Myself and Irene |
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20th Century Fox Official Site
http://www.feverpitchmovie.com/
View the trailer
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/fever_pitch/
Time Out review:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/07/22/the_perfect_catch_2005_review.shtml
The Independent review:
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/reviews/article305272.ece
BBC reviews:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/07/22/the_perfect_catch_2005_review.shtml |
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