Justin Fashanu Biopic Set At ITV From Kwame Kwei-Armah – Deadline

The lifetime of footballer Justin Fashanu, the primary footballer to return out as homosexual, is to be changed into an ITV drama from BAFTA-nominated author Kwame Kwei-Armah.

Fashanu was a particularly gifted footballer who grew to become the primary black British footballer to be bought for £1M on the age of simply 20, turning into some of the celebrated individuals in British sport. In 1990, he got here out as homosexual and by 1998 together with his soccer profession in tatters and ostracized by his household, he commited suicide.

ITV mentioned the drama is being put along with the help of Fashanu’s brothe John Fashanu and different contributors embrace LGBTQ+ campaigner Peter Tatchell. Dominic Treadwell Collins’ ITV Studios label Pleased Prince is producing, Kwei-Armah is writing and ITV Studios is distributing.

Kwei-Armah mentioned: ““I grew up watching the Fashanu brothers. I used to be fascinated by them. Impressed by them. As an grownup, my coronary heart breaks for them. ‘The previous is a international land’, the saying goes, ‘they do issues in another way there’. In Fash, I needed to dive into that previous, notably one which has so many resonances with as we speak.”

ITV Drama head Polly Hill mentioned the scribe’s “scripts are sensible and and inform a narrative that’s heart-breaking and sadly nonetheless related as we speak.”

ITV can be quickly to premier biopics about Crossroads star Noele Gordon, starring Helena Bonham Carter, and Cary Grant, starring Jason Isaacs.