Duncan Brantley & Rick Reilly sold their script for Leatherheads to Universal Pictures. It was to be director Steven Soderbergh's second film after Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989), and Mel Gibson was originally tapped to play the lead role.

Jonathan Mostow is huddling with Universal to do "Leatherheads", the Universal film about the early days of football. Universal has been trying to get the pic to the goal line for several seasons. Steven Soderbergh once tried it, and "Swingers" scribe Jon Favreau recently rewrote the script for the pic, which is set in 1926. Dish hears Mostow would work with Favreau to get it going.

June 30 1997 (source: Variety)

Writer-director Jonathan Mostow has signed a first-look deal at Universal to direct as well as produce movies. He's bringing a project into the deal, and taking on another that was long in development. He'll team with "Swingers" scribe-star Jon Favreau on "Leatherheads". That film, about the formation of the National Football League, was originally developed with Steven Soderbergh. Universal hopes to fast-track it with Mostow quarterbacking.

Mostow was slipped "Leatherheads" by Universal exec veep Kevin Misher, and fell for the concept. Universal's been huddling on the project for years, since it got an original draft by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly. Paul Attanasio took a crack at the draft for Soderbergh. Favreau wrote the most recent version.

"It's set in 1926, when college football was the same as now, but pro football was like mudwrestling --- dirty and sleazy," said Mostow. "They were coal miners and longshoremen who didn't practice and got together for an hour a week to very violently beat the crap out of each other for $50 a game." Because of the vivid action, Mostow described the film as "Braveheart" on a football field.

September 11 1997 (source: Variety)

Among his [Jon Favreau's] current projects is "Leatherheads," a period drama about the crazy early days of the NFL, which he's rewriting for Universal.

November 24 1997 (source: Variety)

Jon Favreau wrote "Leatherheads" which is in development at Universal.

July 30 1998 (source: Variety)

George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh, who teamed for the first time on Universal's "Out of Sight," will reunite on the 1920s football romantic comedy "Leatherheads" for the studio.

Soderbergh will helm from a script he developed five years ago with writers Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly.

Producers are Sydney Pollack through his Mirage Enterprises and Robert Newmyer through Outlaw Prods.

Universal is hoping to get the project into production by March.

Clooney had been loosely attached to "Leatherheads" (Daily Variety, July 10), but committed after Soderbergh signed on a second time. The director had been on the pic with Brantley and Reilly scripting in the early 1990s, but left over casting conflicts.

Universal resurrected the project with Jonathan Mostow directing and Jon Favreau scripting. But they drafted a more serious rendition of the project as a potential epic in the "Braveheart" vein.

When Clooney came on board, he read the Soderbergh version after the pair had made "Out of Sight," and decided he preferred the comedy.

Pic takes place during the early years of professional football in the 1920s. Story follows an aging footballer (Clooney) who convinces a young college star to dump his school and play in the pros.

"Bottom line is that if George and I had not had such a good experience on 'Out of Sight,' and if Universal hadn't been happy with the rest, none of this would have happened," Soderbergh said.

Clooney compared Soderbergh's approach to the style of a Howard Hawks pic. "It's got a great romance between the guy and the girl against this beginning-of-football backdrop," Clooney said.

"Steven has a dry sense of humor. He's evil is what he is. As often as you can do a movie with guys like that, do it," he added.

November 5 1998 (source: Variety)

Soderbergh's skedded the pic [Traffic] for next fall, after completing the currently shooting "The Limey" for Artisan and the gridiron pic "Leatherheads" at Universal.

December 4 1998 (source: Variety)

Universal has sidelined its period football comedy "Leatherheads," opening up springtime slots for its star George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh.

Pic, which is being produced by Sydney Pollack through his Mirage Enterprises and Robert Newmyer through Outlaw Prods., was slated for a March start date; but has been put on hold indefinitely.

"Leatherheads" chronicles the early days of professional football in the 1920s, and follows an aging footballer who convinces a young college star to dump his school and play in the pros.

A Universal spokesman confirmed the film had been put on hold, but could not say whether the studio intended to proceed with a 1999 production of the film. It's unclear whether Universal's decision was based on budget concerns or as a result of the studio's new management turnover.

Newly named Universal co-president, Kevin Misher, who was overseeing the project for the studio, did not return calls seeking comment.

On the other hand, "Leatherheads" might have another down to go: According to sources, Jonathan Mostow, who preceded Soderbergh in the quarterback spot of "Leatherheads," is looking to return to the film and is developing his draft of the screenplay as a future directing vehicle.

September 27 2001 (source: Variety)

In addition, the production company [Section Eight] is working on the gridiron film "Leatherheads," a project that the partners began talking about at Universal even before Soderbergh first directed Clooney in "Out of Sight." Soderbergh plans to helm the pic, with Clooney starring.

October 31 2001 (source: Variety)

The studio [Universal] is developing, among other things, his [Casey Silver's] Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney pic, "Leatherheads"

August 7 2003 (source: Variety)

Stephen Schiff spent the past week at George Clooney's Italian villa, huddling on the period gridiron pic "Leatherheads" which Clooney will star in and direct.

"It's a classic screwball romantic comedy set at the birth of the National Football League in 1925," Schiff said. "There's this great romantic triangle, with George this raffish aging pro football hero who falls in love with the girlfriend of a college great named the Blond Bullet. The strange thing is I'm rewriting a script by Steven Soderbergh, who's extremely talented. I'd be looking at it, saying, wow, this is good. What could they possibly want me to change?"

February 1 2007

Read the StarNewsOnline article, How a 'good ol' boy' from N.C. got George Clooney to direct his new film