Coe and Ovett’s track battles to be turned into movie
The Olympic rivalry between runners Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe is to be turned into a movie.
BBC Films is developing the project based on the book, The Perfect Distance, by sports journalist Pat Butcher who had access to both men.
The battle between Ovett and Coe, who is now leading the 2012 Olympic Games operations, dominated middle-distance running in the Eighties at the Moscow and Los Angeles Olympics.
The aim is to have the film version in cinemas before the London Games.
The film is a joint venture with AL Films, the producers behind the BBC1 dramatisation of Small Island, with William Davies, a Hollywood-based Briton who wrote Johnny English and Flushed Away, writing the screenplay.
Christine Langan, creative director BBC Films, said: "This is a gem of a story, about British sporting life and more. Will's take on it is very exhilarating."
