Sequel for 'Mike Bassett: England Manager' planned
A sequel to the 2001 football comedy film Mike Bassett: England Manager is in development.
Screen Daily reports that the new movie will be filmed later this year, provided funding targets can be met.
The Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson, who played the bad-tempered, deluded character at the centre of the original film, has signed up for the new project.
Titled Mike Bassett: Interim Manager, the new film is timed to coincide with the year in which the real England team head to Brazil to compete in the World Cup.
The original film, which made $5m at the UK box office, saw the 'hapless no-hoper' Bassett accept the poisoned chalice of the England football manager's job and try to lead his country in search of the World Cup.
Tomlinson later performed as the character in Mike Bassett: Manager, a six-part sitcom series in 2005. The ITV show saw the character trying to help lower league club Wirral County FC avoid relegation.
The new film sequel will see Bassett invited to join the England camp to assist gifted coach Jorgen Mannstein. The German has turned the England team into an efficient goal-scoring squad, however things don't stay smooth for long when Bassett arrives.
Rob Sprackling and John R Smith, who wrote the first film and have since gone on to write the screenplay for Gnomeo & Juliet, have created the new script.
The project will be overseen by Steve Barron who also acted as Producer and Director on the original film and was an Executive Producer of the TV series. He explains: "Bassett was the last England manager to take the national team to Brazil. We reached the semis then, who knows what we could achieve this time?
"I'm very excited to be back with the team including football legend Andy Ansah who cut his teeth on the first film. As the years have gone by Bassett seems to have dug deeper into football folklore. There is hardly a manager in the game that hasn't been compared to him. Usually at a low point. Sometimes a very low point."
Mike Bassett: Interim Manager is being part funded by the BFI, with the newly launched Goldfinch Pictures looking to raise another £2.5m via enterprise investment schemes.
Below is the TV trailer for the original film: