At one time, Searchlight Pictures was planning to release director Taika Waititi‘s new movie Next Goal Wins on April 21st. We already would have had the chance to see it last weekend. The release date ended up shifting back to September 22nd – and five days after the original release date, a trailer for the film has now arrived online! You can check it out in the embed above.
Scripted by Waititi and Iain Morris, Next Goal Wins is based on the 2014 documentary from Mike Brett and Steve Jamison. The movie is about “the worst soccer team in the world, who famously experienced the biggest loss in an international match against Australia, 31-0, which is about a goal every four minutes,” Taika Waitit told Entertainment Weekly. “After suffering that huge defeat, they applied to the soccer federation to find a coach who could get them from the very, very bottom of the FIFA rankings.”
Next Goal Wins stars Michael Fassbender, Elisabeth Moss, Will Arnett, Frankie Adams, Oscar Kightley, David Fane, Beulah Koale, Lehi Falepapalangi, Semu Filipo, Uli Latukefu, Rachel House, Kaimana, Chris Alosio, Rhys Darby, and Angus Sampson.
Garrett Basch of Film Rites and Jonathan Cavendish of Imaginarium Productions produced the film with Brett and Jamison of Archer’s Mark.
I’ve never seen the Brett / Jamison documentary and have no knowledge of the true story beyond what Waititi said in the quote above, but going by the trailer Next Goal Wins looks like a fun time to me. And it’s nice to see the director doing a promising, smaller scale comedy after the large scale disappointment of Thor: Love and Thunder (speaking for myself there – our own Chris Bumbray wasn’t disappointed by that movie, as you can see by this 9/10 review). Given that Next Goal Wins is about “the worst soccer team in the world”, it’s also a nice touch that the trailer sells Waititi based on the awards he was nominated for but didn’t win.
What did you think of the Next Goal Wins trailer? Are you looking forward to the new Taika Waititi movie? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.