Coming soon: iconic Aussie sports movies
12.10.11
Robinson was a six-time All-Star, National League MVP, World Series champion, Hall of Fame second-baseman for the famed Brooklyn Dodgers. He was named in the Major League Baseball team of the century and in
1997 had his famous #42 jersey retired by the league. Not just by the Dodgers but by every
club.
Trophies and stats sell Robinson’s legend short because he was more than just a ball-player. In 1947, he broke baseball’s colour line, becoming the first African-American to play in the majors. No wonder Hollywood came calling.
But it was probably a mistake to let Robinson star in his own biopic because as an actor he makes one helluva ball-player.
Thankfully, the producers of The Cup, the new Aussie film out tomorrow, cast real actors in the big-screen version of Damien Oliver’s emotional Melbourne Cup win in 2002 on Media Puzzle only days after his brother Jason was killed in a race trial fall.
Directed by Simon Wincer (Phar Lap) and starring Stephen Curry as Oliver, Daniel MacPherson, Shaun Micallef, Brendan Gleeson and the late Bill Hunter in his last role as legendary trainer Bart Cummings, The Cup is that rarest of creatures: an Aussie sports movie.
Source: The Roar