Netflix Reveals Global Release Date & First Look For Homeless World Cup Movie ‘The Beautiful Game’ Starring Bill Nighy & Micheal Ward

Andreas Wiseman

16 January 2024 at 9:00 am·2-min read

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has set a March 29 global launch for Homeless World Cup movie The Beautiful Game, which stars Oscar nominee Bill Nighy (Living) and BAFTA winner Micheal Ward (Top Boy).

The movie will follow Mal (Nighy), the manager of England’s homeless soccer team, who takes his players to Rome with the hope of being crowned champions of the Homeless World Cup, a global street tournament. At the last minute he decides to bring talented striker Vinny (Ward), who could give them a real chance at winning, but Vinny must overcome personal demons and embrace the team to give them a chance at winning the tournament. Above is a first-look image from the movie.

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Also starring are Susan Wokoma, Callum Scott Howells, Kit Young, Sheyi Cole, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Robin Nazari, Aoi Okuyama, Cristina Rodlo, Tadashi Watanabe, Kazuhiro Muroyama and Valeria Golino.

The long-gestating project, which began filming in 2021, has been produced by Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Ben Knight for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri outfit Blueprint Pictures, Anita Overland (Small Axe) and In Bruges and The Batman star Colin Farrell.

Thea Sharrock (Wicked Little Letters) directs from a script by Frank Cottrell Boyce (The Railway Man).

Exec producers include Diarmuid McKeown, Claudine Farrell and Ollie Madden and Daniel Battsek for Film4.

The Homeless World Cup Foundation was established in 2001. The Foundation’s mission is to use soccer to support and inspire people who are homeless to change their own lives and to change perceptions and attitudes towards people who are experiencing homelessness. The 2024 Homeless World Cup will take place in Seoul, S Korea, while the most recent edition of the street football tournament took place in Sacramento, California in July 2023.

Farrell has been a long-time supporter of the project, which was formerly set up at Fox Searchlight. He previously narrated the 2008 Sundance documentary Kicking It, which is also about the charity.

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