Cast:
George Clooney … Jimmy Dodge Connely
Renee Zelleweger … Lexie Littleton
John Krazinski … Carter Rutherford
Synopsis:
Jimmy “Dodge” Connelly (George Clooney) is the team captain of the Bulldogs in the struggling pro football league in 1925. The entire pro football league is in danger of collapsing, one team at a time, and his team is next. Dodge gets an idea of saving the team by recruiting a college football star who fills the college stadium with over 45,000 cheering fans. With the lure of big money, Dodge is able to convince Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) to drop out of college and join the team. Carter is not only a star football player who can outrun his completion, but he is also a national war hero of WWI who single-handedly captured a platoon of German soldiers. Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) is a newspaper journalist assigned to get Carter’s real inside story about the capture of the German soldiers. To get the story, Lexie must travel with the team, and in time, both Carter and Dodge fall for her. Only one will win her love as the fourth quarter comes to an end.
Trivia and Facts:
* The script was written back in 1993. The writers brought it to the attention of Steven Soderbergh who then took it to the then president of production at Universal Pictures, Casey Silver. It went into script limbo after Silver left the studio to become an independent producer. Soderbergh then came back and brought Clooney along to make the film.
* Star-director Clooney and his co-star Zelleger premiered this film in Clooney’s hometown of Maysville, KY on March 24th, 2008. In 1953, his aunt Rosemary Clooney had premiered a film of her own, The Stars Are Singing (1953), in the same town, though not at the same theatre. Roughly 3,000 fans attended the red carpet event while 200 VIPs were hand-selected to watch the film. An additional screening was held afterward with 100 lucky winners winning 2 tickets apiece from a raffle drawing. Clooney and Zellweger hosted the second screening as well before departing the theatre. Among the guests in attendance were former Lt. Governor of Kentucky Steve Henry and his wife, Miss America 2000, Heather French Henry.
* Clooney claimed that he had rewritten all but two scenes and had asked the WGA for credit. When they denied his request, he removed himself as a voting member and changed his status to “Financial Core Member.”
Quotes:
Jimmy ‘Dodge’ Connelly: You’re only as young as the woman you feel
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