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EXCLUSIVE: The Weinstein Company has preemptively acquired screen rights to The Boys in the Boat, a nonfiction book by Daniel James Brown about the University of Washington 8-man rowing team that bested the elite schools like Harvard and Yale to represent the United States in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. There, they beat powerhouses England and Germany to win the Gold Medal, prompting Hitler to storm off in disgust. WME made the deal based on a 17-page proposal, and the agency is hot and heavy with several publishing houses for book rights. I’ve heard that Viking and Random House were among those into the bidding last night, which at the time reached $750,000 for North American rights.
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The term “crew team” is redundant. It’s like saying “gang posse”.
Chariots of Fire on a boat!
hoping harv doesn’t sink the shell
Winklevi in a dingy!
@Joe: You beat me to it. I went to the UW and was on crew (lightweight) for a couple of years. Brutal and elegant sport.
Who cares? How many more decades will we tell the “We Beat Hitler!” storyline. He was the worst person ever and ultimately he lost. Can we please tell an original story that appeals to more than just old baby boomers?
Let’s see, original story that isn’t about baby boomers? how about Social network, 127 hours, black swan, true grit, inception? that’s just the nominees?
Does that do it for you?
I’m with disgruntled viewer. Besides, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to be enjoyable. That said how many movies have there been about “crew teams” (sic) from any decade with any villain?
Many of the movies from that time period have to do with killing Nazis. The ones from the past decade like Inglourious Basterds, Defiance, Valkyrie, Miracle at St. Anna, the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and the Pianist weren’t very good. The Boys in the Boat sounds lame. 200 years from now, Hollywood will still be obsessed with Nazis. If they’re going to make this kind of movie, please make it as amazing as Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List. Thanks.
Hmmm…. most of these film are about killing civilians, not Nazis. The Pianist and The Reader won some Academy Awards. I thought Valkyrie and Defiance were good.
I can see why the young folks might be tired of WW2, but the story is so immense and universal that filmmakers find different aspects (geographic and personal).
@Graham- Thank you— you can have a crew or you can have rowing team, but you never have a “crew team.”
@Tad – Don’t get me started on what present-day tadpoles view as
their generation’s “history” – (Social Network, anyone?).
My advice?..make your own history, make your own movie. An, no, I’m
not one of the Greatest Generation…but they were!
Oxford Blues 3-D
I’m writing a comedy parody about an all black college rowing team in 1936. They can’t even swim and are not allowed to sit in the front of the row boat. By some miracle the team makes it into the Olympics – they come in last place but have a party corrupting the German people. The team steals the Gold Medal from Adolf Hitler after having their way with Eva Braun.(who has never even seen a black guy in person) … I’m calling it “COOL STROKING…”
Call me, Harvey.
Very Funny… thanks for todays laugh!!
If you are interested in pre WW II stories of people in boats, you might look at Walthur Von Hutschler, a German aristocrat and racing sailor of very old money. Hitler shows up and Walthur did not like him at all so he promptly sold everything and moved to Rio where he continued to race his Star boat, (22′-7″ with a 33′ mast,) started a company making Pimm Sheet, the round cord used for control lines, and invented the bendy rig, (adjusting the curve of the mast to change the shape of the sail to fit the conditions.)
Racing for the world championships at Kiel, Walthur, by now a Brazilian citizen, had just won the regatta on 1 September,1939.
if you can get Matt Damon to play Walthur Von Hutschler and Ben Affleck to play the German ambassador, then we’ve got a picture!
ACK! I LOVE ROWING, love a good race, but c’mon, this is such a pointless story to tell b/c a couple of years later all these rowers were serving together in the war – and I can prove it.
kate- if you would like to get in touch, we would love to hear your story. ed at row2k.com
I’m a “young whipper-snapper” and I think this story sounds Epic. The glory of a sports movie WITH the true life evil villain Hitler? I like it.