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Entertainment

17th May 2016

Shia LaBeouf is to play John McEnroe in a tennis biopic

Talk about perfect casting.

Tony Cuddihy

Yep. Seems about right.

One is a talented firebrand who is likely to erupt at any moment if things don’t go his way. The other is John McEnroe.

Shia LaBeouf is set to play the tennis legend in Borg/McEnroe, a biopic that charts the rivalry between the American player and the Swede in the 1970s and 1980s.

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It’s going to be like Frost/Nixon for people born long after Watergate, or Rush for those of us who were never especially keen on watching cars drive really quickly around a track.

Sverrir Gudnason will play Borg, with Stellan Skarsgaard taking on the role of Borg’s coach Lennart Bergelin.

Janus Metz will direct, and had this to say about the project:

“This is a very powerful drama that plunges deep into the minds of two extremely interesting personalities living in an explosive era. I am very honored and excited to be at the reigns of it.”

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Borg and McEnroe went up against one another 14 times between 1978 and 1981, each winning seven of their matches. Their Wimbledon finals in 1980 and 1981 are deemed to be among the greatest ever in the history of tennis.

Topics:

Film,Tennis