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| Left to right: FIFA president Sepp Blatter, Gerard Depardieu, and director Frederic Auburtin at the Cannes Film Festival. |
The film’s director Frédéric Auburtin has said that his film is “a disaster” and he regrets his involvement. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he intended to make a combination of “Disney propaganda” and “a Costa Gavras/Michael Moore movie” but he struggled under the weight of Fifa.
“Now I’m seen as bad as the guy who brought Aids to Africa or the guy who caused the financial crisis,” he said. “My name is all over [this mess] and apparently I am a propaganda guy making films for corrupt people.”
In His first interview since the disastrous U.S. opening, French director Frederic Auburtin tells THR he tried to strike a balance between "a Disney propaganda film [and] a Costa-Gavras/Michael Moore movie," but the project ultimately tipped in FIFA's favor. "Now I'm seen as bad as the guy who brought AIDS to Africa or the guy who caused the financial crisis. My name is all over [this mess]," the director laments, "and apparently I am a propaganda guy making films for corrupt people."
According to Auburtin, the film's problems began back in 2012, when Louisa Maurin, a first-time producer, pitched FIFA the idea of making a film about the organization's history. Maurin joined forces with veteran French producer Christine Gozlan and attached Depardieu. Depardieu, in turn, brought in his friend Auburtin, who had directed the actor in 2006's Paris, je t'aime.
From the start, however, Auburtin and co-screenwriter Jean-Paul Delfino were under the gun. FIFA wanted the film finished for release in the summer of 2014, ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. "Normally you need a year to write a script. We had four months," Auburtin says.
Initially, Auburtin says he worked with Roth to "introduce a subtext" of corruption to the largely pro-FIFA script. That could explain some of the film's lines, including: "Blatter, he's apparently good at finding money."
The original title, as suggested by Fifa, was Men of Legend. “Can you imagine such a title?” he asked. “It’s nonsense. Then The Dreammakers. Come on.”
He also went on to say that he didn’t even know the film was being released in the US until a journalist told him. He is now keen on making a sequel about the recent Fifa controversy.
“I’m a victim of the game,” he said. “It’s a disaster, but that is not the point, I accepted the job. [But] I was not paid to be the Che Guevara of the sports business. Please don’t make me the guy responsible for the fact that Fifa is rotten.”
