The King’s Speech producers option rights to acclaimed account of the England-Scotland rugby rivalry.

Bedlam Productions,one of the companies that produced The King’s Speech, has picked up the rights to Tom English’s acclaimed 2010 book The Grudge, about the 1990 Five Nations Grand Slam rugby match between Scotland and England. 

Bedlam’s Simon Egan is attached to direct and will produce alongside Evan Leighton-Davis of Takedown Pictures, the production arm of London-based script consultancy Industrial Scripts. Leighton-Davis brought the project to Bedlam.

Set against the backdrop of Thatcherism, the story dramatises how the hard grind tactics of Scotland coaches Jim Telfer and Ian McGeechan overcame a rampant England team including Will Carling, Brian Moore and Jeremy Guscott.

Bedlam will attach a writer in the coming months and hope to shoot the piece as either a TV drama or low-budget feature in autumn 2012.

 

Topics