Diane Scavuzzo
Posted: Thursday, October 27, 2011 1:24 pm

Soccer News: Andy Thomas, Laguna Niguel Soccer Club Coach, Script Picked Up - Filming Scheduled to Start in January

Andy Thomas, Director of Coaching for the Laguna Niguel Soccer Club, has written a screen play that is being turned into a movie, “The Beast.”  It has been picked up by David Anspaugh, the director of Hoosiers and Rudy, which are two of the highest grossing sports movies of all time.

Thomas, who coached the boys’ varsity teams at Laguna Beach and Mater Dei high schools, wrote the screen play with his brother, Mike. It is loosely based on a story about Thomas’ Laguna Beach boys’ soccer team that appeared in the Los Angeles Times 14 years ago. The title comes from the nickname of the main character, a member of that team who played with such intensity that he was called "beast."

The Beast has been kicking around for roughly 10 years. It is still in pre-production and searching for funding, but the pace is beginning to pick up. A year ago, after several rewrites, the Thomas brothers landed three producers with a combined 40 years of film experience. In June, Anspaugh signed on to direct the project. "Anspaugh, in my opinion, is the best director of all time," said Thomas. "He is the guru of sports stories and it is amazing to have him on board."

The local soccer community—parents of Thomas’ club players and his former Laguna Beach players—jump-started the fundraising campaign by contributing nearly $200,000 in seed money. “They loved the raw emotion of the story,” Andy Thomas said. “They cried reading it.” Asked to describe the movie, Thomas said, "It's an inspirational and heart-wrenching story, which is why it is getting so much attention. It brings together both emotions."

Numerous groups of potential investors are reviewing the project, but the producers are seeking additional revenue streams in order to get the cameras rolling.

“We can start shooting in January if we can get even half the money,” Thomas said.

Producers have reached out to James McAvoy of X-Men and Last King of Scotland fame, in hopes that he would play Andy Thomas in the lead role. The Beast, which Thomas said is “about 80% true,” is sort of soccer’s version of Hoosiers. In it, Thomas takes a rag-tag group of surfers, snowboarders and skiers to a Southern Section championship, the first for a school that hadn’t reached the playoffs in the 10 years before Thomas took over.

Other major names are already signing on to the project. Ed Begley Jr., who starred in Best in Show and Pineapple Express, has signed on to play The Beast's father. Veteran actor Stacey Keach, the legendary Mike Hammer, will play Laguna Beach's athletic director. British actors Tim Curry, Robson Green and Vinnie Jones have also been approached about possible roles.

The story begins on the Isle of Man, a small island off the coast of Scotland, and moves to England, where Thomas dreams of playing for his beloved Liverpool FC.  When the undersized Thomas is rejected for not being big enough for the top flight, he makes a clean break from England's soccer scene and comes to Laguna Beach to begin a coaching career.

Almost instantly he meets The Beast, a superb all-around athlete and the heartbeat of Laguna Beach’s soccer team. The story focuses on the relationship between Thomas and Beast, who both have a passion for soccer and chips on their shoulders for constantly hearing they aren’t big enough to play the beautiful game. 

The list of prominent soccer players and coaches who are connected to the movie continues to grow. Thomas Dooley, former captain of the U.S. Men’s National Team, and Steve Nichol, former Liverpool FC player and recently departed coach of the New England Revolution, will serve as consultants. Jack McBean, the LA Galaxy’s 16-year-old striker from Newport Beach, has agreed to play one of the Beast’s Laguna Beach teammates.

The movie is scheduled to start filming in January, provided additional funding comes in. The budget for this independent film will be around $9 million and producers project it will make $140 million because of the global appeal of a soccer movie that is set on two continents. Shooting is expected to take place on the Isle of Man, Liverpool, Northern Ireland, Laguna Beach and Utah.

Producers had hoped that CinemaNX, Isle of Man’s film industry, would fund the film, but Thomas was turned down earlier this year. CinemaNX is the same company that missed out on the chance to back The King’s Speech, one of the highest grossing British Movies of all-time.

Thomas said he was “shocked and disappointed” at CinemaNX’s rejection of his movie.

“We thought it was a no-brainer that they would embrace a soccer movie written by two local boys,” Thomas said. “We’re proud to be from the Isle of Man and we wanted to show it in the right light. The movie will be visually stunning. We thought a movie that will have a global audience could really give a boost to local tourism.”

After being turned down by CinemaNX, producers will likely turn to Northern Island and Liverpool to depict Isle of Man scenery.

Thomas began writing the screenplay some 10 years ago. He caught the screen writing bug while working as a soccer consultant on the 2002 film “Pumpkin,” starring Christina Ricci. “The movie business looked fun,” Thomas said. “I thought that I’d like to try one myself.”

Andy and his brother Mike began going to screen writing seminars and movie festivals to learn more about the film industry. Andy began a few screen plays that never materialized before settling on the script for Beast. The story is loosely based on Thomas’ 1997 Laguna Beach boys team that shocked everyone by winning the Southern Section title. 

“I figured you live it first, then you write about,” he said. “The best movies are based on true stories. This was really more of a passion and a hobby until it got life a few years ago.”

Thomas realized his hobby might be turning into a career after showing his script to Greg MacGillivray, a longtime producer, director and cinematographer. MacGillivray’s son, Shaun, played on Thomas’ magical 1997 team and is now a producer himself. “Greg said, ‘I think you’ve got something here; you can sell this,’" Thomas said.

Shortly after that, Thomas showed the script to his nephew’s manager, Jim Divisek, who happens to run a Hollywood casting network with Mimi Maynard. Divisek and Maynard loved the script and agreed to produce the film. The rest, as they say, is film industry history.

SoccerNation caught up with Thomas and spoke with him about the project and his own coaching experience.

SNN: What has this project been like for you?

Andy Thomas: It is very mind-blowing and hard to fathom. The whole thing has been pretty crazy, but a fantastic experience.

SNN: So many coaches want to write a movie. How did you do it?

Andy Thomas: I first wrote the script as a hobby about ten years ago, learning by trial and error. It was all about persistance and not giving up. The first script was rejected and didn't go anywhere. Then I reworked it and that was what it needed. I have had a lot of help along the way.

SNN: Do you have any other scripts in mind?

Andy Thomas: I've thought about some of the other seasons I've coached. Even the losing seasons can be inspriational and exciting.

SNN: How long have you been coaching?

Andy Thomas: I've been a full-time youth coach for 18 years in Coast Soccer League. Originally I came to California in 1990 as a summer camp coach, then I would return to England in the fall. I moved to Orange County permanently in 1993.

SNN: How long have you been Director of Coaching with Laguna Niguel Soccer Club?

Andy Thomas: This is my fourth year as DOC with the club.

SNN: What do you like most about coaching?

Andy Thomas: For me, the reward in coaching youth soccer is having an impact on the kids I work with. That's what it is really all about.

Here is a brief description of the plot from the business plan:

The story moves from the sometimes bleak and cynical environment of the Isle of Man, to the sun drenched, bright world of Laguna Beach, California, giving us a magnificent cultural collision. Andy unexpectedly joins forces with Beast, a local teenage boy, to stop a group of thugs from bullying a mentally challenged local man.

Almost a generation apart, these two kindred souls; Beast who is a superb all round athlete: surfing, skating and snowboarding, but he is the heartbeat of the local high school soccer team, and Andy share in this obsession for soccer. They share the life experience of being small athletes in this big man’s game. Their story will change each other’s lives forever, and the lives of an entire community.

Soccer is the backdrop of this story, but this movie is universal and it encompasses so many aspects of life: the human condition, relationships’, spirit, passion, determination, adversity/transformation, redemption/hope, destiny and community. All the ingredients are there for everyone to relate to something or someone in this film. The story is heartfelt, raw, poignant, hopeful, but ultimately bitter sweet.