Taika Waititi presents ‘Next Goal Wins’, a football drama based on true events

Among the many projects that Taika Waititi, the director of ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, now presents his next title, ‘Next Goal Wins’, or as they would say in Spanish “Gol Gana”. It is a football-themed drama film, based on true events, and of which the first images starring Michael Fassbender have already been presented.

After “Thor: Love and Thunder”, Taika Waititi presents his next film ‘The next target wins’, the first images of which have already been revealed in Empire magazine, featuring Michael Fassbender, as the coach of a football team (seen training in the background). With this title, Waititi promises to return to the roots of comedy and drama that made him so famous with ‘Jojo Rabbit’.

The story of ‘The next target wins’ will be played by Michael Fassbender, birthing Dutch coach Thomas Tongen, and is based on a true story, which itself was made into a 2014 documentary of the same name. In it, a match of the American Samoan team is narrated, which they lost with an impressive score of 31 to 0 against Australia.

At first, ‘The next target wins’ It would have had the participation of Armie Hammer, but was replaced by Will Arnett after the controversy with the actor. The cast of Taika Waititi’s upcoming film is completed by Elisabeth Moss, star of the acclaimed ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (Amazon Prime Video) and the remake of ‘The Invisible Man’ (Netflix).

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What is ‘Next Goal Wins’ about?

After watching the documentary, Taika Waititi wanted to delve into ‘Next Goal Wins’, as he was interested in telling the “ultimate underdog story,” which “takes place in Polynesia,” the director’s home. In the magazine, Waititi notes that this will be his most personal film to date: “Let’s stick together. It was like seeing me there, seeing my family, when I saw that documentary, which is perfect in so many ways.”

And he adds: “That a wider audience has access to the story is one of my main goals”, he hints after arriving in more commercial cinema with ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, and consecrating himself to an Oscar with ‘Jojo Rabbit’. “It’s not that there’s anything bad about making those other films, but I really missed home,” concludes the director.

Finally, Waititi cautions that he doesn’t try to faithfully adapt the story of “Next Goal Wins,” but rather seeks to “deepen the characters.” “If you like ‘real’ movies, you’ll hate this one. I mean, if you want to see exactly what happened, you have the documentary.” At present, the release date of this film is set to be April 21, 2023.