Last fall, word circulated around movie and culture sites that Shia LeBeouf would portray legendary tennis player John McEnroe in a movie about his renowned rivalry with Swedish star Bjorn Borg during the late-70s and early-80s which culminated in the 1980 championship match at Wimbledon.
Pictures from the shoot confirmed that this was really happening. LeBeouf was indeed portraying the famously temperamental McEnroe and scenes of the Wimbledon match were being filmed with Sverrir Gudnason playing Borg.
Now we have more than photos to show us that the film, titled Borg/McEnroe, is ready for release. A teaser trailer has been released for the movie which is clearly geared toward international audiences with the audio being in German. But you can at least enjoy the visuals, which include a look at LeBeouf as McEnroe.
https://youtu.be/ZFFigCCE_mU
LeBeouf certainly seems to have the McEnroe temper right. We’ll have to see if he looks convincing on the tennis court. Clearly, the focus is on Borg in this trailer, nodding to European audiences. An international release appears to be the path producers have chosen for the movie, first releasing it in the U.K., Sweden, Norway and Germany in the fall.
The movie is directed by Janus Metz Pedersen, who was behind the camera for an episode of True Detective‘s second season. Pedersen also directed a 1996 BBC documentary about the Borg-McEnroe rivalry titled Clash of the Titans. (Borg/McEnroe is a boring title, but Clash of the Titans wouldn’t have worked with that title attached to a 1981 fantasy movie and 2010 remake. Using the tennis stars’ nicknames of “Fire” (McEnroe) and “Ice” (Borg) probably wouldn’t have worked either.)
No U.S. release date has yet been reported, so whether or not Borg/McEnroe gets a theatrical release here might depend on how well it performs internationally. Or like last year’s Lance Armstrong biopic, The Program, maybe Borg/McEnroe will get a digital release in the U.S. before becoming available on video.
About Ian Casselberry
Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.