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Screenwriter turning Ghana's World Cup money ordeal into Hollywood thriller starring 'someone like The Rock'

Dirty Tackle
Screenwriter turning Ghana's World Cup money ordeal into Hollywood thriller starring 'someone like The Rock'

Before the World Cup even came to an end, Bugeater Films optioned a treatment from writer/director Darryl Wharton-Rigby based on the dramatic delivery of Ghana's bonus money. The bizarre situation offered all the elements necessary for a Hollywood thriller — $3 million in cash being delivered with a police escort through the streets of Brasilia to Ghana players who threatened to boycott their match against Portugal if they didn't receive it.

The adaptation from Wharton-Rigby, who was a staff writer for Homicide: Life on the Street, was originally summarized by The Wrap like so:

Wharton-Rigby's script will follow a courier who's tasked with bringing $3 million to an African soccer team, which refuses to play until its paid — in cash. Things go awry when the courier is ambushed on the way to make the drop, leaving him less than 12 hours to recover the stolen money.

With the project still in development, the filmmaker has provided a bit more detail about his vision to BBC World Service.

"I saw footage of the police cars taking the money on the highway and you can just see that scene playing out in your mind with someone like Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson as the guy having to save the day. You can see all kinds of mayhem happening on the highway."

"It's 50-50 as to whether it will get made, we're still at the early stages so we're going to take it one step at a time. Hopefully we can write a great script and get someone who is attached to it. It's a fascinating story and I think audiences internationally would really take to it."

"I can see the poster now; lots of soccer balls, a stadium and a guy on the run."

With a poster like that, there is no way this film can fail. At the very least, it couldn't be worse than FIFA's United Passions movie. Let's hope it gets made and that "someone like The Rock" turns out to be The Rock himself.

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Brooks Peck

is the editor of Dirty Tackle on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him or follow on Twitter!