Rumor has it Hollywood superstars Matt Damon and Liam Neeson are about to start shooting a movie based around the infamous annual Isle Of Man motorcycle race. And not another documentary– a full-on action flick. (Update: The movie is real, but it sounds like these actors aren’t onboard after all.)
MoreBikes is reporting that the movie, simply titled Isle Of Man, will be about an aging bike racer (Damon, who is actually 46 and now you feel old, too) who’s “lured out of retirement” for something like one last epic showdown.
The site quotes Gary Michael Walters of Bold Films explaining: “Isle Of Man is a muscular action film wrapped around a great character journey.” I’m sure it’s all verrrry original.
But a day after the Damon/Neeson announcement, another site MotoFire says the news of these actors being involved, and professional real-life racer Cameron Donald (as Damon’s stand-in stunt rider), is just a fume.
Neeson’s role in the movie is not yet clear. But we do know he has some experience with motorcycle road racing movies since he leant his voice to narrating Road. And of course there was that time he crashed into a deer.
All I know about Damon’s experience with motorcycles is that Julia Styles didn’t like riding pillion with him when they shot Bourne.
As for inanimate stars, as any good movie about vehicles is bound to have, it sounds like a new Honda Fireblade, the ultra high-performance variant of the sport bike we know as the CBR, will get starring product-placement. MoreBikes quotes an anonymous “top Honda boss” as saying:
We’ve already been working as advisers to the technical aspects of the film. It’s all very exciting and there seems to be a big budget involved. It’s one of those movies with lots of people attached. I’ve met with the writer and director Ben Younger and he has a clear idea of how it’s going to happen. There’s a lot of film people who will be at the TT making this film next year.
Director Ben Younger, a former bike racer himself, has apparently been working on Isle Of Man since the 2000s and is writing as well as producing according to Hollywood Reporter.
Shooting is slated to begin around the middle of 2017. I know riders and race fans already enjoy the great documentaries that have come out about this race, but maybe a little popcorny dramatization will help introduce more new people to the scene.