Big Star: New Disney Film Has Cooperation Of The NFL

Disney’s upcoming “Invincible” is the first film the NFL has backed since “Jerry Maguire” in ’96, and the league “didn’t just sign off on the project; it also has come on board as a marketing partner” with Disney and Mayhem Productions’ Gordon Gray and Mark Ciardi, according to Rich Thomaselli of AD AGE’s MADISON & VINE. The movie stars Mark Wahlberg as Vince Papale, the bartender and substitute teacher who earned a roster spot with the Eagles in ’76 when coach Dick Vermeil (played by Greg Kinnear) held an open tryout. The NFL “took an active role in how its brand was positioned in the film, working closely early on” with producers and writers, as well as Davie-Brown Entertainment and the William Morris Agency. Also, the “nuances and details of what the NFL was like in 1976, down to the look of the uniforms, were important to the league,” and the NFL also requested that parts of the script be rewritten to “tone down scenes of excessive gambling and drinking.” Additionally, all Coca-Cola products in the film were replaced by Pepsi, the NFL’s soft-drink sponsor. NFL Dir of Corporate Communications Brian McCarthy: “We’re very heavily involved in product placement.”

COMING ATTRACTIONS: McCarthy added the league has “reviewed, and in many cases, rejected, numerous scripts each month. Now we’re taking a bolder look at the scripts. We greenlit ‘Invincible’ and we’re working with a couple of projects we hope we can announce shortly. We’re open for business in a much grander fashion” (MADISON & VINE, 7/5).