[dktorode]

Heres the trailer

Forgot about this movie completely.
Looks like it could be a decent movie, barring the dodgy accents.

[alt146]

Man, I laughed so hard when I saw this trailer yesterday - seriously, Matt Damon playing rugby? Still I rate it should be interesting, although I'm not sure what the plot will be. Wonder who they will get to play Naas Botha.

[Aptorian]

alt146, on 01 November 2009 - 10:09 AM, said:

Man, I laughed so hard when I saw this trailer yesterday - seriously, Matt Damon playing rugby? Still I rate it should be interesting, although I'm not sure what the plot will be. Wonder who they will get to play Naas Botha.

Matt Damon looked huge in that clip of him without the shirt. I'm sure they gave him one of those superstar trainers and put a jar of american vitamin-S in front of him to get him that big.

This looks like the Cool Runnings of South African Rugby. I don't know what to think of it, it looks silly, but it seems like they want us to take it seriously.

[alt146]

I was too young to really appreciate it (I was 9 at the time), but that was a pretty significant moment in South African history. That was probably one of the first times the country was truly united post apartheid. People literally swarmed into the streets and started partying. The image of Nelson Mandela wearing the Springbok Jersey and handing Francious Pienaar the trophy is one of the most iconic representations of post-apartheid SA.

I really hope that a foreign crew can really carry that across, especially to audiences that dont know much about the country or the sport. I would have loved to see something like this done by South Africans. Like I said, I laughed when I saw Matt Damon playing rugby, but it has the potential to be a powerful film. On the surface it's a classic underdog story - noone expect us to win that trophy - but there's so much more to it than that.

Also a little bit sad that there's no mention of the rest of the squad on IMDB. I hope they're in there - I would expect there would be a bit of a side-story about Chester Williams being the only black player in the squad and someone has to play Joel Stransky, even if it is just for THAT kick. Maybe it's just because I'm a rugby fan, but I hope they keep a fair amount of actual sport in the movie, not just off the field drama.

[amphibian]

Aptorian, on 11 November 2009 - 07:17 PM, said:

This looks like the Cool Runnings of South African Rugby.

And what, sir, is wrong with Cool Runnings?

EINS, ZWEI, DREI!

[dktorode]

We werent THAT much the under dogs....jees we were ranked like 4th in the world or something at the time.
It was just that no one thought New Zealand could be beaten, with Lomu tearing every team a new one every game it was meant to be a forgone conclusion that they were going to take it.... in steps the Saffers

[alt146]

dktorode, on 12 November 2009 - 09:23 AM, said:

We werent THAT much the under dogs....jees we were ranked like 4th in the world or something at the time.
It was just that no one thought New Zealand could be beaten, with Lomu tearing every team a new one every game it was meant to be a forgone conclusion that they were going to take it.... in steps the Saffers

I think we were slightly lower than that. Did some reading up and general consensus was we wouldn't beat Australia in the opening match or make it past the quarter finals. It would have been more of an upset if say Japan or Tonga had won, but we were far from the favourites going in.

I hope they at least have someone playing Jonah Lomu too. IMDB has actors listed for Kobus Wiese and Rudolph Straeuli at least, I wonder why it's taking so long for them to put up a proper billing considering the movie will be out in a month.