Posted in: Movies, Searchlight | Tagged: Next Goal Wins, searchlight, taika waititi

Next Goal Wins: The "Elements" in Thomas That Waititi Sees In Himself

Next Goal Wins director Taika Waititi explains that some elements of the character Thomas come from himself, specifically issues dealing with patience.

There is no separating the art from the artist because, by nature, the artist always brings some of themselves into the art that they are creating. Some artists are just more self-aware of what elements of themselves are making it into the art, if it's any of their good or bad traits, and if that will help or hinder the art in question. When it comes to Next Goal Wins and director Taika Waititi, he is self-aware enough to know that there are elements of Thomas (Michael Fassbender) that are reflections of himself that have made it on screen, specifically, as he explained to Empire, regarding patience.

"There are probably elements of the character we created around Thomas that I see in myself — that I see developing if I lose my patience," Waititi admits. "I've got quite high standards when I work with other people and can feel — when someone's not getting things right — this thing build up in me. I feel like this idea of becoming more patient with people is a thing that I've had to learn from being patient with this film."

It turns out that "patience" was the name of the game when it comes to this film because it has been hanging out in development hell for a little while. It was shot before Thor: Love and Thunder and has had some behind-the-scenes issues that have caused delays. Waititi says it leads into the central theme of Next Goal Wins, which is "Be happy and slow the fuck down." He also explained how much it helped to personally shoot in Hawaii for himself when dealing with all of the issues that required extra patience.

"I really understand why Adam Sandler just does everything in Hawaii," Waititi says. "It's just nice to be around brown people. It's like being at home! You want to relax me? Put me around Pacific Islanders."

Right now, the reviews for Next Goal Wins are a bit mixed, but it did debut at a film festival, and film festivals are rarely kind to films that aren't incredible or insanely terrible. So even if this film is all right, the festival goggles will make it seem much worse. We'll have to see what happens when it drops next month.

Next Goal Wins: Summary, Release Date, Cast List

Directed by Academy Award® Winner Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok) and based on a true story, NEXT GOAL WINS follows the American Samoa soccer team, infamously known for their brutal 31-0 loss in 2001. With the World Cup Qualifiers approaching, the team hires down-on-his-luck, maverick coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender), hoping he will turn the world's worst soccer team around in this heartfelt underdog comedy. It will be released on November 17th.

Searchlight Pictures presents, In Association with TSG Entertainment, NEXT GOAL WINS starring Michael Fassbender, Oscar Kightley, Kaimana, David Fane, Rachel House, Beulah Koale, Uli Latukefu, Chris Alosio, Semu Filipo, Ioane Goodhue, Lehi Falepapalangi, Hio Pelesasa, with Will Arnett, and Elisabeth Moss. Directed by Taika Waititi and penned by Waititi and Iain Morris, the film is produced by Jonathan Cavendish p.g.a., Garrett Basch p.g.a., Taika Waititi p.g.a., Mike Brett, and Steve Jamison. Executive Producers are Andy Serkis, Will Tennant, Phil Robertson, Kathryn Dean, and Josh McLaglen. Rounding out the team are director of photography Lachlan Milne, ACS, production designer Ra Vincent, editors Nicholas Monsour, Yana Gorskaya, ACE, Tom Eagles, ACE, and Nat Sanders, ACE, costume designer Miyako Bellizzi, composer Michael Giacchino, and with casting by Mary Vernieu, CSA, and Michelle Wade Byrd, CSA.

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