LONDON — Asif Kapadia, the director of the Oscar-nominated “Amy,” is to helm a feature documentary about the soccer player Diego Maradona. The film will be handled internationally by Altitude Film Sales and introduced to buyers at Berlin, with U.S. sales being handled by Cinetic Media.
Altitude Film Distribution has taken U.K. rights to the film, titled “Maradona.” The company also distributed “Amy,” which took £3.76 million ($5.39 million), making it the highest-grossing British documentary of all time at the U.K. box office.
The Maradona movie has the same filmmaking team behind it as “Amy” and their previous documentary “Senna” — Kapadia, James Gay-Rees and Chris King. Those three will be joined as producers on the film by Paul Martin, the producer of “Ronaldo.” It is being fully financed by Julian Bird’s Lorton Entertainment.
Kapadia will have access to hundreds of hours of never-before-seen footage from Maradona’s personal archive.
Kapadia said: “I’ve long been a fan of Diego Maradona. I was taken by his character, his genius, honesty, passion, humor and vulnerability. I was fascinated by his journey, wherever he went there were moments of incredible brilliance and drama. He was a leader, taking his teams to the very top, but also many lows in his career. He was always the little guy fighting against the system, against the wealthy, the powerful and he was willing to do anything, to use all of his cunning and intelligence to win.”
He added: “I first wanted to make a film about Maradona even before I directed ‘Senna,’ so I’m very excited to have this opportunity. Diego is the greatest player of all time but with flaws and weaknesses. His life was one of extremes, but somehow, ever the street fighter, he has survived to tell the tale.”
