The official trailer for the upcoming film “Concussion” was released earlier this week, and it looks like it could turn out to be a nightmare for the NFL. Unless, of course, the makers of the movie were intimidated by America’s most popular sports league while filming.
A report from the New York Times cites leaked studio emails that were allegedly sent back and forth between Sony Pictures executives pondering ways the script for “Concussion” could be altered to avoid antagonizing the NFL.
“Will (Smith) is not anti football (nor is the movie) and isn’t planning to be a spokesman for what football should be or shouldn’t be but rather is an actor taking on an exciting challenge,” Dwight Caines, the president of domestic marketing at Sony Pictures, reportedly wrote in an email to three top studio executives on Aug. 6 of last year. “We’ll develop messaging with the help of N.F.L. consultant to ensure that we are telling a dramatic story and not kicking the hornet’s nest.”
Another email supposedly admitted that some “unflattering moments for the NFL” were either changed or deleted altogether. In a statement to The Associated Press in response to the New York Times report, “Concussion” director Peter Landesman denied that Sony bowed down to the NFL on any level.
“We always intended to make an entertaining, hard-hitting film about Dr. Omalu’s David-and-Goliath story, which played out like a Hollywood thriller,” Landesman said. “Anyone who sees the movie will know that it never once compromises the integrity and the power of the real story.”
Landesman also spoke to the Times about the emails and insisted that exeucitves were merely trying to avoid being attacked by the NFL for taking too much creative license. In other words, filmmakers were worried about being accused of inaccuracies, not attacking the NFL.
“There were things that might have been creatively fun to have actors say that might not have been accurate in the heads of the N.F.L. or doctors,” he said. “We might have gotten away with it legally, but it might have damaged our integrity as filmmakers. We didn’t have a need to make up anything because it was powerful and revelatory on its own.
“There was never an instance where we compromised the storytelling to protect ourselves from the N.F.L.”
The trailer, which you can watch here, sure made it seem like “Concussion” is going to make the NFL look bad. We’ll just have to wait until the movie comes out to determine if it could have made the league look even worse.
