Leicester City movie could remain a football fantasy

It could have been football’s finest film since Escape to Glory, but now it would seem that the much-hyped (and rightly so) Leicester City movie is as remote a possibility as a successful Premier League title defence.

Vinnie Jones, who was a virtual shoo-in for a part in the flick, hinted at the bombshell earlier this week, as revealed in The Sun.

“If that movie had come out by the end of (last) season it would have been very popular. But all of a sudden Leicester don’t do well this year, who’s interested? That’s the problem.” It’s no secret that both the film and footballing worlds are more than a little bit fickle, but surely it’s still a story worth telling via the big screen – at least it wouldn’t be a reboot, and that’s worth something alone in today’s climate.

But, as Jones himself revealed at the recent launch of the video game Mafia III, “there’s no script, there’s no contract” and “it’s a very, very long shot for the movie to be made now”. This is in stark contrast to the opinion of star striker Jamie Vardy, who said only last week that the script is “nearly finished”.

And what a script it would be. Centering around Vardy’s spectacular rise from non-league nonentity to Premier League glory, culminating in one of sports greatest-ever fairytales, it would surely go down a storm around the world. Whether or not it would be talked about in the same breath as sports-based classics such as Raging Bull and Chariots of Fire is another matter entirely, but it would at least show that there’s more to the city of Leicester than Kasabian and Walkers Crisps.

So things are looking decidedly grim and, for now at least, memories of those heady days don’t look to be making the journey from the East Midlands to Hollywood any time soon.