Interview with Adrian Butchart, The Goal! Trilogy

Q. Why did you write the Goal! Trilogy?
A. When I heard that the producers of Goal! were planning the first big budget trilogy about soccer, I knew that it was something I had to be involved with. I love sports and soccer is always close to the top of my list. I approached the producers on a weekly basis over the course of several months, and asked them to let me write the script. It was a fine line between keeping me and my enthusiasm on their radar and trying not to bug them. They turned me down several times on the grounds that I lacked experience (I had only had one film produced at that time) but eventually, I guess, the perseverance paid off and I ended up writing on every film in the trilogy.

Q. Do you need sports experience to write a sports movie?
A. I think you need to have experience to write about any subject. Although that can be third-party experience (I don’t think you need to have robbed a bank to write a screenplay about it, although it might help!). In the case of Goal!, I had very little playing experience. I went to a school where rugby was the preferred sport, but I was a huge soccer fan and I had been going to see my team play every weekend for several years.

Also, believe it or not, computer games really helped. I was obsessed with a particular computer game about soccer. It was more manager-based than actual live game play, but as a result I was fully versed in virtually every player, position, set-piece, and management style in the World. I can remember one of my friends watching my obsession and telling me it’s a pity I couldn’t get paid for playing that computer game. Ironically, I kind of did in the end.
When it came to actually writing the movies, experience was really important to the producers and they made sure that we had full access to whatever information we needed, so from the beginning we were allowed to go to training with the players, sit at pitch-side during matches, anything that didn’t interfere with the functioning of the club. During preparation for the second movie, I remember being at the Real Madrid training ground with my co-writer and us looking at each other and wondering whether our boyhood friends would believe us if we called them and told them that we were at training with the likes of Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and David Beckham.

Q. Are you using sports to tell a different story?
A. Sports can be used as an analogy for larger issues. In our case we were interested in the ability of sports to break boundaries and unify people of different cultures.

Q. What separates a good sports movie from a bad one?
A. Humanity.

Q. What makes a movie a sports movie?
A. Firstly, there's the role that the sport takes within the film and the main character(s) involvement in it. For example, while they touch on other human aspects, Rocky and Chariots of Fire are both sports movies. Jerry Maguire is not.
Secondly, the film can be light hearted but cannot be out-and-out comedy - I would say that Major League is a sports movie, whereas Blades of Glory and Happy Gilmore are not.