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Cashing in: Hollywood to make movie out of Ghana's $3m flight drama

By Allsports.com.gh
Sports News Cashing in: Hollywood to make movie out of Ghana's 3m flight drama
JUN 30, 2014 LISTEN

Hollywood will soon welcome a film with a story based the bizarre happenings of Ghana's World Cup appearance fee row.

According to The Wrap , an award winning US writer, Darryl Wharton-Rigby, is planning on making the film happen.

Following an agitation of Black Stars players for their agreed $100,000 each World Cup appearance fee, the government of Ghana stocked a chartered flight with over $3m in cash en route to Brazil as an emergency measure to settle the disquiet in camp.

The arrangement, since described by Ghana President John Mahama as "unconventional but necessary", led to Ghana being subjected to international ridicule. It received world wide coverage and has been one of the major off-the-pitch talking points at the Mundial.

Wharton's screenplay will reportedly revolve around the saga, though fictional events will be fused with the real story to add a bit of bite to it.

The proposed fictional element will see the flight ambushed and the $3m stolen. The pilot will then have close to 12 hours to recover the money or face the wrath of the Ghana government and players.

Wharton is a former staff writer for Homicide: Life on the Street, the celebrated Emmy-winning TV series from producer David Simon which preceded the hugely successful series The Wire .

"The world has soccer fever and Hollywood has caught it," Wharton-Rigby, whose 1998 film Detention won the best director prize at the Urbanworld film festival, explained.

The screenplay for the upcmoing movie has reportedly been optioned by US production company Bugeater , founded by Dan Mirvish and Barry Hennessey, a duo who will produce the film.

Hennessy is an Emmy winning producer for reality TV show The Amazing Race , and he reckons the film will be the perfect opportunity to tap into the "raw energy" of both Brazil and Ghana.

"I've shot extensively in both Ghana and Brazil, and this is a perfect project to capture the raw energy that both countries have to offer," he told The Wrap.

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