It looks like the real life fairy tale of Paul Potts will be told from the silver screen, and Mr. Cowell himself will serve as the producer. We get the following scoop from THR:
The project, about the life of opera singer Paul Potts, has attached “The Bucket List” scribe Justin Zackham to pen the screenplay. It also has been given a name, “One Chance,” based on the singer’s last-ditch effort to make a career in music by competing on the “Britain’s Got Talent” television show.
An amateur opera singer and mobile-phone salesman, Potts was riddled by a streak of bad luck when, on a lark, he auditioned for “Talent” in 2007. His on-air performances ended up bowling over audiences and judges, including Cowell. He went on to win the show and become a media and YouTube sensation, eventually going on a global music tour and releasing an album.
I hate reality TV for the most part, but a few weeks ago my friend Billy showed me a clip of Paul Potts on You Tube. The unassuming man bought his golden pipes to the stage of Britain’s got talent and obliterated the competition to win the whole shebang. His story is touching, encouraging and empowering; it’ s no surprise to me that it will be turned into a feature film, and I welcome this feel good tale of accomplishment.
For those of you that haven’t seen the audition of Mr. Potts – I now present the following clip for your enjoyment!
Paul (still) rocks, and you do, too, Buck Foss. What a good reply you gave.
Yes, alan, you are the only person who cannot stand Paul. I’ve listened to more than 50 recordings of Nessum Dorma, always returning to Pavrotti as the singular best. Paul’s is not quite that quality, but it places #2 out of the others. Combine that with a really hard life story, a woman who fell in love with an ugly man with crooked teeth on line, who through her love lived in poverty with him so he could work 13 hour days to make just enough to get singing lessons, and later get thrown out of a Pavrotti master class because he couldn’t pay for it, only to have it all come together on one last chance on a half-baked reality show … and then, to rock people to their knees. If you can’t see the movie in this then you must be a hollywood producer that gave us American Pie 3 and is looking to do Ishtar 2. Yes alan, there is a santa clause, but he’s leaving you a lump of coal
Am the only guy who can’t stand this guy, Connie should have won Brits got talent cant stand the man, A fat guy with bad teeth from a phone shop woopty doppty doo,
PHONE…. PHONE FOR SALE! cough cough, Hear ya go want a phone?
CONNIE ALL THE WAY, he screwed her out of that she had real talent he was trained to sing like that!
But hay thats just my opinon, Cya soon!
This guy is incredible. I almost fell out of my chair during the climax of the piece. Awsome. Then that fucking Aerosmith song came on and I remember why, I too, hate reality TV. Emotional pornography! I hope the movie has more class than that hacky re-tread crap.
Did anyone catch the recent episode of “America’s Got Talent?”
Meet Neal Boyd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld2fdY3aNkk
Notice how strangely similar his ‘story’ is to Potts. I actually saw Boyd’s clip first and was blown away. Now, I’m starting to suspect that they inserted him into the American Version on purpose so they could try to get a similar audience response. Also, the fact that Boyd does in fact tour leads me to believe there’s some shennanigans.
HAHAHA pol pot ….anyways man this guy is seriously messed up looking…..i hate opera cause i dont know whats going on but man the looks on those people faces as he ripped it up was priceless…..i really like (even though i never seen american idol) when simon cowell is just flabergasted….good for paul u ugly brit…U ROCK!
As much as I enjoyed that clip, I’m afraid there won’t be enough to put into this movie to justify making it a film. I guess at best they’ll go the “Eight Mile” route, but I’m afraid they’ll fill it with fictional adversaries, adventure and other sludge that just wasn’t present in the true story. He’s an average man with a once-in-a-lifetime shot that he nailed.
Hopefully this will be the next Rocky, but judging by other movies about singing, they won’t do this guy justice. Not in the least. And that’s a shame.
I was confused at first. I thought you were referring to “Pol Pot” singing Opera on reality tv which… truly would have been amazing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot
I read the story and was thinking “Really… a movie about some schlub from a reality competition – give me a break who cares?” and then I watched that clip. I am not an opera fan, but I actually sat here in my chair in my office and cried. I fucking cried when he sang.
Really amazing.
This guy is just awesome.
Yep I’m with ya Doug…I despise reality tv…absolutely hate the shit but every once in a while…this comes along…great success story!
A totally unassuming man with one amazing voice. My favorite part in the video is when the camera pans to the female judge (can’t remember her name) but she looks like she’s having an orgasm while Paul Potts is singing. That’s power right there.
I agree, I remember flicking past this while he was doing his first audition, when he started singing, no one expected him to be that good, this guy is truly amazing,