Taika Waititi wants Michael Fassbender on his team.
Fassbender is in talks to star in Next Goal Wins, the next project on the docket for the Thor: Ragnarok director, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the news. The project will re-team Waititi with Fox Searchlight Pictures, which produced the filmmaker’s upcoming Nazi satire (and possible Oscar contender) Jojo Rabbit.
Representatives at Fox Searchlight and Fassbender did not immediately reply to EW’s request for comment.
Next Goal Wins is based on a 2014 British documentary of the same name, which focuses on the national soccer team of American Samoa. Waititi’s film will follow Dutch coach Thomas Rongen (Fassbender) as he attempts to turn the underdog team’s fortunes around in time to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. (In 2001, the team suffered the worst loss in international football history, 31-0.)
Waititi wrote the film’s screenplay with British writer Iain Morris, and Andy Serkis is on board as a producer (his company Imaginarium Productions originally optioned the rights to the documentary). The director is also slated to helm the fourth Thor movie, Love and Thunder, set for release in November 2021, but will shoot Next Goal Wins first.
Fassbender most recently appeared in the X-Men film Dark Phoenix, reprising his role as Magneto.
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