In a casting move seemingly too good to be true, Shia LaBeouf has officially signed on to portray tennis star John McEnroe in Borg/McEnroe. The film, which follows the intense rivalry between McEnroe and Swedish player Björn Borg, was the talk of the Cannes Film Festival Sunday.
"Jake is me, and so is McEnroe," LaBeouf said during an American Honey press conference at Cannes, referencing his relation to that film's character and his forthcoming take on McEnroe. "That's it, man. I understand these people. I empathize with them. I get it. You just turn things up, you turn things down. It's me."
The prospect of playing McEnroe, though very much a real human being, is arguably any top-shelf actor's dream. McEnroe himself played up his reputation as the sport's most charming (and undeniably talented) asshole in a classic episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm back in 2007.
That episode, centered around a presumably delightful coffee table book entitled Mondo Freaks, brings us swiftly to our next and most important point: Maybe this Borg/McEnroe movie should just be an extended, two-hour reboot of that Curb episode (shit happened nearly a decade ago, after all).
Picture it: Larry David, still bewildered by the fact that a Saturday Night Live star is dating his daughter, decides to distract himself with some side work as an annoyingly talkative limo driver. His first client, conveniently enough, is none other than beloved tennis badass John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf). After some small talk centered on the aforementioned Mondo Freaks, LaBeouf's McEnroe and David's David get wasted and attempt to track down Björn Borg.
As we live in a cruel and unusual world not interested in offhand ideas presented in pop culture news articles, none of that is set to happen in Borg/McEnroe. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Janus Metz-directed film will instead focus on the height of their rivalry in the '70s and '80s. The two Wimbledown finals in 1980 and 1981, respectively, are still ranked as some of the greatest matches in the sport's history.
