Netflix making film about 1999 US Women's World Cup team

Netflix has announced a feature film centring around US Women’s soccer teams win at the 1999 FIFA World Cup.

According to Variety, the project is based on Jere Longman’s book “The Girls of Summer: The US Women’s Soccer Team and How It Changed the World”.

The streamer recently bagged the rights for the book after a round of competitive bidding. The film will chronicle the journey of the team in the Women’s World Cup, most notably the final against China. The match is still remembered for the iconic image of Brandi Chastain, who after scoring the winning penalty, ripped her shirt off in celebration.

Liza Chasin will produce the movie under her first look deal along with Andale Productions Hayley Stool and Ross Greenburg of Ross Greenburg Productions. Jill Mazursky and Krista Smith will serve as executive producers.

In a blog, Tendo Nagenda, Vice President at Netflix Films, recalled watching the “groundbreaking game in Union Square”.

“When I moved to Uganda in my teens, playing soccer was an important way to meet kids my own age (even if our balls were made up of dried banana leaves). That was also true when I left my first job in Los Angeles to take summer film classes in New York City in 1999.”

“In between stealing shots and locations, my collaborators and I would stand outside bars to see the Women’s World Cup series. Watching the USA team that summer made me forget I had no money and little more than a dream to feed me. That team, that goal, and Brandi Chastains unforgettable reaction in which she ripped off her shirt and dropped to her knees in astonishment made me believe I could do anything, and do it my way,” she wrote.