It’s no secret that Matthew McConaughey enjoys the random storytelling project for a stellar indie film (see: Dallas Buyers Club, Mud, We Are Marshall) when he isn’t commanding $20 million per film (see: Interstellar, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Dark Tower).
Another thing about the actor I appreciate, along with 30 million of my pals, is his allegiance to Texas. Sideline bombing at Texas Longhorn games, speaking up for the tragic Uvalde school shooting, or even a teased Gubernatorial run, Matthew McConaughey is a darling son of the Lone Star State.
So, when he championed a story from 1984 about a girls’ soccer team from Dallas who went to China and won (think Miracle except for southern girls, soccer, and the People’s Republic), no one thought twice. He got the green light to share the Dallas Sting story with the world.
Until it wasn’t.
Even in Dallas/Fort Worth, the story about the 1984 Dallas Sting isn’t well recognized. And this is the home of the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame?! So, when McConaughey started investigating the silver screen depiction of this “team from nowhere bands together and shocks the world in victory” story in 2020, the locals got happy.
It’s a (way too) common trope, so the Oscar-winning actor had that going for him. And see the Dallas Sting coach Bill Kinder below? C’mon. Matthew McConaughey was going to pull off a doppelgänger acting job easily! And then, the story got benched.
Was Matthew McConaughey Offsides for This Story?
It all started here. According to The Hollywood Reporter sleuth Borys Kit:
Sources say Skydance and the producers received disturbing allegations surrounding aspects of the true story on which the drama was based. That investigation led Skydance and the producers to pull the plug, according to sources.
A source close to the decision noted Skydance and the producers were disappointed by the development, as they felt the story of the 1984 team and its young women deserved to be told.
This story and movie had all the makings of a severe tear-jerking tale. Still, there hasn’t been a comment from Skydance (the financier), Berlanti Schechter Productions (the producer), The Handmaid’s Tale and The Falcon and Winter Soldier’s Kari Skogland (the director), Dopesick and Booksmart star Kaitlyn Dever (co-star as Dallas Sting coach’s daughter), or Matthew McConaughey.
Nada. No word. Bupkus!
We only know that the story was only six weeks from production. It was fully cast. Then, these mysterious “disturbing allegations and inaccuracies” seemed to have left Skydance no choice. These faceless “sources” have shared that there was an investigation into what was being said about the storytelling and “turned up damning evidence.”
While the cast has scurried away and no one else is talking, The Dallas Morning News shared a quote from the would-be film’s producer a couple of years back that makes people who wanted this story to be told on a grand scale feel empty this morning:
“The story shows how women have been and still are treated poorly around the world in sports compared to their male counterparts,” said producer Sarah Schechter in 2020. “To see what the Sting did with little support and no money, intertwined with how these very different young girls meshed for the love of the sport and country, is something beautiful that deserves not to be lost to history.”
Hopefully, the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame has a section on the fabled Dallas Sting for McConaughey to visit. It appears that is as close as he will get to this story.
Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.