FOOTIE-mad teenagers who can kick a ball like George Best are being sought for a new film to be made about the former Manchester United player's life. Producer Stephen Evans, whose previous credits include Henry V and The Madness of King George, says he wants to cast a footballer who can act, "rather than an actor who can be taught to play football".
The search, to begin next month, will include visits to football academies in the hope of finding a skilful teenager to fill the exceptional boots of Belfast's legendary footballer. The yet untitled film will combine archive footage with dramatic re-enactment filmed in Belfast and Manchester and a key focus will be young Best's relationship with his landlady, Mary Fullaway, when he first moved to Manchester as a homesick 15 year-old. "She did everything for him [Best]. She used to answer sack loads of fan mail that came in and she built him up, weight-wise, by feeding him well," Evans said. "He was very homesick when he came to Manchester and she was the person who helped him get over it."
Best, who won 37 caps for Northern Ireland and scored 178 goals for Manchester United over the course of his career, remained close to Fullaway, even at the height of his fame. The biopic will also zoom in other less savoury aspects of the Best story, including his battle with alcoholism and the chaotic lifestyle he led away from the pitch.
A number of films and plays about the football star have hit screen and stage with varying degrees of success, with Best's son Calum also presenting a documentary about what life was like as the child of a famous alcoholic.
In 2005, at the age of 59, the former east Belfast boy died in a London clinic after years of battling alcoholism.