Ben Pearson:
Headland will direct for HBO Films. The screenplay was first written by Robert Siegal (The Wresler, The Founder), and Headland is rewriting before filming gets underway. She started out in the theater world before becoming a staff writer on the brilliant and cancelled-too-soon FX series Terriers
This sounds like a really cool project. HBO has always had a slate of films, but they seem to be slowly ramping up into more mainstream productions to compete with Netflix. This is one I will defiantly be checking out whenever itâs released.
An excerpt from Benâs piece about the story of Blazer:
He was the middle-class Jewish kid from Queens who rose from local youth soccer leagues to the heights of FIFA, becoming a larger-than-life, jet-setting buccaneerâand the most notorious FBI informant in sports history. For years, Chuck Blazer skimmed over $20 million from FIFA, stashing his money in offshore accounts and real estate holdings that included a luxury apartment in Trump Tower, a South Beach condo, and a hideaway in the Bahamas. Instantly recognizable with his unruly mass of salt-and-pepper hair and matching beardâand a rotating crop of arm candyâBlazer was one of the most flamboyant figures in the glitzy social and political circles of international soccer. Over the course of thirty years, Blazer leveraged his friendships with the likes of Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton and Nelson Mandela, to increase his influence with the mandarins of global soccerâmost notably Sepp Blatter, FIFAâs long-time godfather.