When Nick Skelton was crowned Olympic showjumping champion in 2016, there was a lot of talk about a film being made of his phenomenal life story.
All the ingredients were there for a Hollywood classic — a much-loved horse and rider showing courage and tenacity, a from-the-brink comeback after Nick broke his neck in a fall, ending with the fairy tale of Rio when the 58-year-old stepped up on the podium to receive his gold medal, wiping away a tear as he did so.
“I suppose mine is a good story,” Nick said. “And the same with Big Star – he was out injured, didn’t really compete for two years and the last competition he won was the Aachen grand prix in 2013. So to come back and do all that is a good story, too.”
It turns out that Bobby Kraut, the 21-year-old screenwriter son of Nick’s partner Laura Kraut, has taken up the mantle to write the screenplay. All it needs now is the green light from Hollywood to potentially take this epic tale to the big screen.
“Bobby is hoping to go in to the film industry so he wrote the film all on his own, pretty soon after it all happened — he just hasn’t done anything with it yet,” Nick told H&H. “Now we just need someone to look at it and decide if it’s feasible to make a documentary or a film from it.”
According to Nick, they showed the script to American actor and filmmaker Robert Duvall, who read it and “really liked it”. The screenplay tells Nick’s story and ends with the record-breaking rider’s seventh Olympic appearance in 2016 where he won his second gold medal with the mighty Big Star.
Continues below…
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“Bobby has done a really good job of it,” said Nick. “It’s all there, we just need to find someone to take it on.”
So who would Nick like to see playing him on the big screen?
“One step at a time – we need someone to give it the go-ahead first!” he said.
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