Coming soon to a cinema near you - Robin Friday The Movie

[Sutekh]

According to the GetReading site, Sam Claflin is to play Robin....


Reading FC legend Robin Friday’s life will soon be coming to a big screen near you.

Hunger Games star Sam Claflin will play the role of Friday, who spent two years with Royals from 1974-76, in a new biopic film.

Despite spending a relatively short time at the club, the forward is thought of as one of Reading’s greatest ever players.

Having signed from non-league Hayes after impressing in an FA Cup tie, Friday went on to captivate the Elm Park crowd for a couple of seasons.

But his wild ways away from football, involving drinking and other excesses, proved to be too big a distraction and he was sold to Cardiff in 1976.

Unfortunately his off-field problems continued and within a year his contract with the Welsh club was cancelled and his life went into free fall.

Drug and alcohol convictions followed until, on New Year’s Eve 1990, Friday was found dead in his flat at the age of just 38.

Subsequently, the maverick striker has become part of football’s folklore and he was immortalised in the best-selling book ‘The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw’.

That book will now be the base for an upcoming film on Friday’s life and career, which is due to start filming in the autumn. It will be directed by Oscar-nominated Henry-Alex Robin and Claflin will play the lead role.

Producer Julian Stone said: “This will not just be a film about cheering a goal, but about tears and laughs and music and silence and anger and love because this working-class hero with outrageous talent lived it all.

“It was a time before the age of privileged athletes, a time when the fans lived next door to their heroes. As Robin Friday walked down the streets of the ’70s, everybody wanted to be him. But quite frankly, no one else had the balls.”

Fortitude International, will handle the foreign rights of the film and it’s co-founder, Nadine de Barros said: “Robin Friday’s legacy continues to live on today and is a story tailor-made for the big screen given the larger-than-life energy which Friday brought to the sport and his life.

“The talented Sam Claflin is the perfect actor to fill the shoes of this British legend due to his background in the sport prior to pursuing his acting career.”

[OldBiscuit]

I've heard he was an 'orrible pikey pcunt! Can anyone confirm this

Charming!

[Man Friday]

He's just jelous 'cos he never saw Reading's player of the millennium play.

Did I mention that I did? Many, many times.

[Pepe the Horseman]

He's just jelous 'cos he never saw Reading's player of the millennium play.

Did I mention that I did? Many, many times.

Not really anything to brag about. Just means you're old.

[marlowuk]

More news about the Robin Friday film reaches the BBC (Wales) website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-32720391

I appreciate it is from the welsh arm of the BBC but it is galling to see him billed as 'Cardiff City hero' when he only played 21 games for them compared with 121 games for Reading! 'Friday, who also played for Reading, died at just 38 in 1990 after years of drug and alcohol abuse.' is the only reference to the fact that he had any connection with us at all! Even mention of his 'wonder goal' will be assumed, by any unknowing reader, to have been for Cardiff particularly as mention is made of (welsh) Clive Thomas who reffed that game.

Let's hope the film gives a fairer view of his footballing career!

[Sutekh]

More news about the Robin Friday film reaches the BBC (Wales) website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-32720391

I appreciate it is from the welsh arm of the BBC but it is galling to see him billed as 'Cardiff City hero' when he only played 21 games for them compared with 121 games for Reading! 'Friday, who also played for Reading, died at just 38 in 1990 after years of drug and alcohol abuse.' is the only reference to the fact that he had any connection with us at all! Even mention of his 'wonder goal' will be assumed, by any unknowing reader, to have been for Cardiff particularly as mention is made of (welsh) Clive Thomas who reffed that game.

Let's hope the film gives a fairer view of his footballing career!

The article was written for the local South East Wales audience so am not surprised it shows a little bias in that respect.

More important is which ground will be starring as "Elm Park" or, in this day and age, perhaps they could recreate it in CGI from existing photos and film footage.

[Winston Smith]

Nou Camp, so that all 100,000 people who claim they were at Elm Park when he bycicle kick volleyed in from 90 yards can be represented.

[Man Friday]

Nou Camp, so that all 100,000 people who claim they were at Elm Park when he bycicle kick volleyed in from 90 yards can be represented.

Sounds like you never saw him play o/w you wouldn't be sounding so sour. Poor you.

[Man Friday]

He's just jelous 'cos he never saw Reading's player of the millennium play.

Did I mention that I did? Many, many times.

Not really anything to brag about. Just means you're old.

I am old.

Nevertheless, watching Robin play is worth bragging about. As is waiting for him after the match to speak with him and get his autograph.

[Man Friday]

More news about the Robin Friday film reaches the BBC (Wales) website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-32720391

I appreciate it is from the welsh arm of the BBC but it is galling to see him billed as 'Cardiff City hero' when he only played 21 games for them compared with 121 games for Reading! 'Friday, who also played for Reading, died at just 38 in 1990 after years of drug and alcohol abuse.' is the only reference to the fact that he had any connection with us at all! Even mention of his 'wonder goal' will be assumed, by any unknowing reader, to have been for Cardiff particularly as mention is made of (welsh) Clive Thomas who reffed that game.

Let's hope the film gives a fairer view of his footballing career!

The article was written for the local South East Wales audience so am not surprised it shows a little bias in that respect.

More important is which ground will be starring as "Elm Park" or, in this day and age, perhaps they could recreate it in CGI from existing photos and film footage.

Chesterfield's? Oh no, that's been "done up" recently.

[Muskrat]

I think we've been round this buoy before and it was generally agreed that Morton's gorund would be the best fit. It certainly is an uncanny resemblence to EP. They even play in blue and white hoops!

[Muskrat]

[sandman]

Nou Camp, so that all 100,000 people who claim they were at Elm Park when he bycicle kick volleyed in from 90 yards can be represented.

More like 200,000 and I heard he did 5 somersaults before whacking it in from the roof of the Spread Eagle.

[AthleticoSpizz]

I was the 1 in the 5791 that saw him play v Wealdstone......and the many more

Might've been there to see THAT goal, but probably shrugged it off as a "no big deal" being the lairy teenager that I was......saw him leave the Spread clutching a glass full of spirit at 14:30 a few times tho'

[Sutekh]

The real thing...

http://www.wsc.co.uk/wsc-daily/1196-may-2015/12446-photo-of-the-week-reading-s-elm-park

No doubt somebody on here will be able to pinpoint the exact date, opponents, attendance and score.

[From Despair To Where?]

The real thing...

http://www.wsc.co.uk/wsc-daily/1196-may-2015/12446-photo-of-the-week-reading-s-elm-park

No doubt somebody on here will be able to pinpoint the exact date, opponents, attendance and score.

94/95 season by my reckoning, the Pelada collarless shirt looks most in evidence, the away end is packed so maybe home to Swindon. That would make it April 1st 1995, a 3-0 win with a Stuart Lovell hatrick. Attendance about 12,500.

EDIT. Maybe not, the player's kits aren't dark enough to be Swindon and the floodlights are on so It would be earlier in the season than April unless it was the Bolton game.

[VOR]

Nou Camp, so that all 100,000 people who claim they were at Elm Park when he bycicle kick volleyed in from 90 yards can be represented.

More like 200,000 and I heard he did 5 somersaults before whacking it in from the roof of the Spread Eagle.

I was there: 5-0 v Tranmere 1976. It was an over the shoulder volley, not a bicycle kick. It simply was an amazing goal, especially at that level (old Div 4); certainly international referee Clive Thomas thought so: he stood there with his hands on his head. Friday was perhaps the wildest of the maverick players of the era, the stories are well known. Of course, an important element in this is that very few of his on-field exploits were captured for posterity so some of them do increase in the telling. I hope the film does credit to the legend.

[Gordons Cumming]

More news about the Robin Friday film reaches the BBC (Wales) website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-32720391

I appreciate it is from the welsh arm of the BBC but it is galling to see him billed as 'Cardiff City hero' when he only played 21 games for them compared with 121 games for Reading! 'Friday, who also played for Reading, died at just 38 in 1990 after years of drug and alcohol abuse.' is the only reference to the fact that he had any connection with us at all! Even mention of his 'wonder goal' will be assumed, by any unknowing reader, to have been for Cardiff particularly as mention is made of (welsh) Clive Thomas who reffed that game.

Let's hope the film gives a fairer view of his footballing career!

The article was written for the local South East Wales audience so am not surprised it shows a little bias in that respect.

More important is which ground will be starring as "Elm Park" or, in this day and age, perhaps they could recreate it in CGI from existing photos and film footage.

Just before Elm Park was demolished I was allowed into the ground to take reference photos for a painting I was creating. Took loads of pictures of the deserted ground. Could make a good CGI from them........... (Film makers take note )

[M Brook]

The real thing...

http://www.wsc.co.uk/wsc-daily/1196-may-2015/12446-photo-of-the-week-reading-s-elm-park

No doubt somebody on here will be able to pinpoint the exact date, opponents, attendance and score.

94/95 season by my reckoning, the Pelada collarless shirt looks most in evidence, the away end is packed so maybe home to Swindon. That would make it April 1st 1995, a 3-0 win with a Stuart Lovell hatrick. Attendance about 12,500.

EDIT. Maybe not, the player's kits aren't dark enough to be Swindon and the floodlights are on so It would be earlier in the season than April unless it was the Bolton game.

I thought it might have been the Bolton game at first but IIRC that game was absolutely rammed with folks climbing over the garden fence (behind whoever took that photo) to get in but that crowd doesn't look rammed.

[Gordons Cumming]

I think we've been round this buoy before and it was generally agreed that Morton's gorund would be the best fit. It certainly is an uncanny resemblence to EP. They even play in blue and white hoops!

Wow! I had to blink.

Uncanny!