Any Given Sunday
Short description
Any Given Sunday centres on the Miami Sharks, a professional American football team that has fallen from championship success into a losing streak. When the veteran star quarterback Jack "Cap" Rooney is injured and cannot continue, an untested third-stringer named Willie Beamen takes his place. His unexpected performance on the field pushes head coach Tony D'Amato to reconsider both his tactics and his own position, while Christina Pagniacci, who has inherited ownership and the team presidency, presses for results and asserts herself in a sport run largely by men. The tug-of-war between the coach's old-school instincts and the new owner's business-first approach runs alongside the struggles of the players themselves.
Oliver Stone directed and co-wrote the film with John Logan, making it the thirteenth of the twenty-two features he has directed in chronological order, arriving between U Turn and Alexander. Al Pacino plays D'Amato, Cameron Diaz plays Pagniacci, and Dennis Quaid plays Rooney, with Jamie Foxx as Beamen, James Woods as Dr. Harvey Mandrake and LL Cool J as Julian Washington. The production, mounted by Warner Bros. Pictures with The Donners' Company and Ixtlan, cost about 55 million dollars and returned roughly 100 million worldwide, a modest multiple of its budget. On IMDb it holds 6.9/10 across more than 124,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.8/10 from a much smaller pool of voters. A critics' score of 5.5/10 from 127 reviews places it below both audience figures.
What's left behind the scenes
- The speech delivered by Al Pacino's character before the decisive match is based on the speech by Marty Schottenheimer, coach of the Cleveland Browns, before the 1989 American Football Conference championship game.
- Initially, Warner Brothers hoped to cast Clint Eastwood, their favorite actor, in the role played by Al Pacino. However, Eastwood wanted not only to play Tony D'Amato but also to direct the film himself, so his candidacy had to be rejected.
- When Willy Bimen comes to Tony, the film "Ben-Hur" (William Wyler, 1959) is being shown on television. Charlton Heston starred in it, and in the film "Each Sunday" he plays the role of a commissioner. Oliver Stone stated that this was no coincidence. He wanted to show how yesterday's rebels grow up and become part of the system. As for Heston, Stone specifically obtained his permission to show a clip from "Ben-Hur" in his film.
- Jamie Foxx recounted that LL Cool J (born James Todd Smith), who played Julian Washington, became too immersed in the role and, during the fight scene between their characters, landed a genuine punch to his face. The actors had to be physically separated.
- Minor roles in the film were played by players from the American Arena Football League.
- Director Oliver Stone applied to the National Football League for permission to use the logos of real teams in the film and to film on NFL stadiums, but was refused.
- Football player Darnell Autry did not pass the audition. He was considered not to look like a football player.
- Students from nearby schools, including Lake Stevens Middle School in Miami, Florida, were asked to fill the stands during the game filming. Before each take, a pause was required to allow the extras to move to the empty seats facing the camera. Cardboard cutouts painted to resemble people were placed in some of the empty seats. Balloons were attached behind them to prevent the silhouettes from appearing static.
- The Miami Orange Bowl, a stadium with a capacity of 74,476 spectators, served as the stadium for the fictional Miami Sharks team.
- The authors drew much of their information about the world of football from Rob Huizinga's book, 'Okay, It's Just a Scratch: Stories from the Doctor of the Most Scandalous Professional Football Team'.
- Oliver Stone envisioned Al Pacino or Robert De Niro in the role of Tony D'Amato. De Niro declined the offer to play the football coach.
- Tom Sizemore starred in the film, but scenes featuring him did not make it into the final cut.
- The walls of the bar where Al Pacino's character is sitting are adorned with portraits of the film's actors and creators – Dennis Quaid and Jim Brown in the lower row, Oliver Stone, Al Pacino, and Cameron Diaz in the upper row.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
