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Clint Eastwood has been confirmed as the lead actor and director of the upcoming feature film based on the life of iconic Queensland rugby league coach Wayne Bennett, he joins a number of other high-profile actors in the biopic – including Woody Harrelson, who is believed to have approached Eastwood himself and demanded he play the role of Kerrod Walters.
They join Matt LeBlanc who will be playing the role of Corey Parker, Margot Robbie (Erin Molan), Luke Wilson (Andrew Johns).
Speaking to the media today, Kerrod Walters says he always envisioned Jason Statham playing himself in a movie, but Woody will do.
“Yeah I’m gonna take him out for a night on the piss in Ipswich so he can get some context” he says.
“We’ll see if he can get that Western Corridor accent just right”
Eastwood says playing the role of Wayne Bennett is proving just as hard a making a feature length film about a man that has coached close to 1000 first grade matches and seen almost ten ‘fairytale’ seasons.
The film, which is to be titled ‘Wayne’ details the early stages of Wayne Bennett’s life from the West End police station, right through to his current standing as the most successful rugby league coach in world history.
Clint Eastwood says he looks forward to making another rugby-related movie, after his atrocious attempt portraying the 1995 South African Rugby World Cup with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.
“I see a lot of myself in Wayne” said Eastwood.
“For one, we both never smile, and, even in our old age we manage to intimidate much younger men through death-staring straight through their behavioural problems”
An Australian international and Queensland interstate representative winger or fullback of the 1970s, Bennett also worked as a Queensland Police officer before becoming a Brisbane Rugby League premiership-winning coach, and in the 1980s earned selection as Queensland’s State of Origin coach. After starting his NSWRL Premiership coaching career with the Canberra Raiders, in 1988 Bennett was appointed the inaugural coach of the new Brisbane Broncos club, later winning six premierships with them, and in 1998 was first selected to coach the Australian national team. He has since coached the St. George Illawarra Dragons (with whom he won the 2010 NRL Premiership) and the Newcastle Knights, and set Australian coaching records for most grand final wins (7) and most seasons with a single club (21).
Firass Dirani is confirmed to play the antagonist role of Hazem El-Masri, the leading point scorer in NRL history and former NSW captain, while John Cena has been locked in to play Shane Webcke and Donald Glover to play the role of one-season-wonder Leon Bott.
