Zoey Deutch will play the lead role in The 99’ers, the upcoming film adaptation of Jeré Longman’s The Girls of Summer: The U.S. Women's Soccer Team and How It Changed the World, Deadline reports.
Longman’s book, published in 2000 by HarperCollins, tells the story of how the U.S. women’s soccer team achieved victory in the 1999 Women’s World Cup. The team beat China in a penalty shootout during the final game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, making stars of players Brandi Chastain, who kicked the winning penalty, Mia Hamm, and Carla Overbeck.
Deutch (Nouvelle Vague) will star as Marla Messing, the sports executive who was the president and CEO of the committee that organized the 1999 World Cup. She joins Emily Bader (People We Meet on Vacation), who will play Hamm.
The film adaptation will be directed by Nicole Kassell (The Woodsman) and written by Katie Lovejoy (To All the Boys: Always and Forever), Dana Stevens (The Woman King), and Peter Hedges (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape). Ryan Reynolds is among the film’s producers, and Messing will executive produce alongside three others.
Kassell shared news of Deutch’s casting on Instagram, writing, “All the puns crashing into mind: SCORE!!!! GOAL!!!!! imply THRILLED to be joining forces with the wildly talented @zoeydeutch to tell the incredible story of this team and the force that was behind the historic 1999 Women’s World Cup, Marla Messing!”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
