Will Smith NFL Concussion drama

G

GunRanger

Veteran
Joined
May 17, 2014
Messages
32,848
Reputation
5,275
Daps
108,270
Bennet-Omalu-3.jpg


Move over, Vin Diesel. The Will Smith movie with the working title of “Concussion” started shooting in Pittsburgh Saturday and will film here through mid-January.

Mr. Smith stars as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the first pathologist in the world to detect a long-developing brain injury called chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE in a former football player.

The year was 2002 and the player was retired Steelers center Mike Webster who died at age 50 of a heart attack. His brain, it turned out, was filled with tangles of a protein called tau, attributed to the thousands of head collisions he had experienced as a player.

Dr. Omalu, who worked for former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, earned scorn from some NFL corners and national publicity with studies on the brain tissue of Mr. Webster and former Steelers lineman Terry Long and ex-Philadelphia Eagles safety Andre Waters — the latter two who died of suicide.

Born in Nigeria, living in Pittsburgh at the time of his groundbreaking work and now based in California, Dr. Omalu has written two books, “Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression and Death” along with “A Historical Foundation of CTE in Football Players: Before the NFL, There Was CTE.”

The movie is based on the October 2009 GQ article “Game Brain” by Jeanne Marie Laskas, who teaches writing at University of Pittsburgh. It teased the lengthy, detailed story this way:

“Let’s say you run a multibillion-dollar football league. And let’s say the scientific community — starting with one young pathologist in Pittsburgh and growing into a chorus of neuroscientists across the country — comes to you and says concussions are making your players crazy, crazy enough to kill themselves, and here, in these slices of brain tissue, is the proof. Do you join these scientists and try to solve the problem, or do you use your power to discredit them?”

Onetime investigative journalist Peter Landesman, who adapted “Kill the Messenger” starring Jeremy Renner as a reporter who was unfairly discredited and who also adapted and directed “Parkland” set in the wake of JFK’s assassination, is directing his screenplay based on the magazine piece.

In addition to Mr. Smith, Oscar nominated for his leading roles in “Ali” and “The Pursuit of Happyness,” the movie stars Albert Brooks as Dr. Wecht, and TV and movie veteran David Morse as Mr. Webster.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw is Prema Mutiso, Dr. Omalu’s wife. The actress played the title role in “Belle” as the illegitimate daughter of a white Royal Navy admiral and a black Caribbean slave and is starring in “Beyond the Lights” opening in theaters Nov. 14. She portrays a singer on the verge of superstardom who falls into a passionate affair with a police officer in the movie from the maker of “Love & Basketball” and “The Secret Life of Bees.”

Alec Baldwin is portraying Dr. Julian Bailes, a onetime Steelers team doctor and then-chairman of neurosurgery at West Virginia Hospitals who supported Dr. Omalu when the NFL denied and attacked him. More recently, Dr. Bailes was one of the neurosurgeons involved in the study of five former NFL players (including former Pitt running back Tony Dorsett) and CTE.

Paul Reiser has been cast as Dr. Elliot Pellman, a rheumatologist who was among the scientists on the NFL payroll who wanted an Omalu article about his findings in the July 2005 edition of Neurosurgery retracted.

Sony Pictures will release the movie. No opening date has been announced.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
FaTaL

FaTaL

Veteran
Joined
May 2, 2012
Messages
107,728
Reputation
5,612
Daps
214,204
Reppin
NULL
i remember this dr from the seau situation, he tried to get his brain and failed because the nfl paid off the family

interesting movie

:ohhh:

will gonna have the nigerian accent though?
 
Last edited:
G

GunRanger

Veteran
Joined
May 17, 2014
Messages
32,848
Reputation
5,275
Daps
108,270
While it now appears that the NFL didn’t try to muzzle the family of soon-to-be Hall of Famer Junior Seau in order to avoid a potential concussion-related embarrassment, the NFL already is making plans for the potential concussion-related embarrassment that it never will be able to silence.

Per a league source, owners spent significant time at their May 2015 meeting discussing how to deal with and respond to the movie Concussion, which has a planned release date of December 25.

NFL already plotting response to upcoming film Concussion
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top