A 12-year NFL career. Two NFL MVP awards. Two trips to the Super Bowl. One Super Bowl victory. You can understand why Hollywood views the professional life of former St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner the stuff of silver screen legend, so it’s no real surprise that his experiences will trigger a biopic based on his autobiography, All Things Possible: My Story of Faith, Football and the Miracle Season.
Deadline reports that the rights to Warner’s story have landed at 20th Century Fox, where producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will shape it into a feature film. Casual NFL fans likely know Warner’s impossible story, transitioning from a grocery store clerk to a starting quarterback in the NFL despite the fact that he went undrafted coming out of Northern Iowa. Warner played in the Arena Football League for years, having been passed over for multiple NFL squads. When given his shot in the late 1990s on the roster off the Rams, Warner defined the term “making the most of your opportunity.” The miracle season he’s referring to is the 1999 season, where he led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory over the Tennessee Titans, setting multiple Super Bowl records including most passing yards (414) and most passing attempts (45) in a Super Bowl game. During that season, Warner became one of seven NFL players to earn regular season and Super Bowl MVP honors in the same year.
So yeah, it’s the stuff that movies are made of. Warner continued to play for the Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants, and he currently earns his pay as a professional NFL broadcaster. He even dipped into reality television (ever so briefly). Now, he’ll be the basis of a hit movie. He’s basically the polar opposite of Heisman trophy winner Johnny Football. Said Warner:
“For so long people have told me my life story would make a great movie. I am humbled and thrilled to have found a team as excited as I am to make that happen.”
No real details yet on the specifics of the Warner film. It’s entirely possible that whoever they find to direct will be able to use Warner in the movie somehow, possibly as a bookend to the story being told. But eventually, they are going to have to find a “young” Kurt Warner, and fill an ensemble with recognizable Rams players. Here’s hoping that the Kurt Warner story can tap into some of the motivational vibes of some of these classic football scenes. If they nail half of this emotion, the Kurt Warner movie will win 10 Oscars and set box-office records.
