OLIVER STONE, director of the upcoming "ANY GIVEN
SUNDAY," is interviewed by Peter Manso of PREMIERE, and says
that he "went through a number of concepts" about the film's
plot before deciding to focus it on the "story about the
rise of a black quarterback [JAMIE FOXX] and his
relationship with his white coach [AL PACINO]." Stone
called the film one of the "toughest" projects he has ever
undertaken and said, "We were delayed four times, partly
because of script rewrites. One of the problems was the
street lingo, getting the black vernacular and all the
football jargon right." More Stone: "Then there were
problems with the NFL, when they withdrew their cooperation
after we wasted a lot of time negotiating. They issued a
memo to every front office in the league that strongly
suggested noncooperation. We had to come up with our own
look for the film, which was probably better for us in the
long run anyway" (PREMIERE, 1/00). In Charlotte, Pat
Yasinskas reports that Panthers coach GEORGE SEIFERT was a
consultant for the picture. Seifert was "offered a job as
the movie's technical advisor," but declined due to
broadcasting commitments (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 12/10).
