Wednesday, October 24, 2001

Knight questions accuracy of made-for-TV movie
Associated Press

LUBBOCK, — Though no one has consulted Bob Knight about a movie about him, the Texas Tech basketball coach knows who he’d cast in the lead.

“Clark Gable,” Knight said.

Beyond that, Knight isn’t giving much thought to the made-for-television movie, “A Season On the Brink,” scheduled for March 10 on ESPN.

Knight told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal he questions how accurate the movie can be.

“It amazes me that they think they can do anything authentic without my help,” Knight said Monday. “I haven’t heard the first word from anybody about it at all.”

Even if the movie’s producer, Stanley Brooks, had contacted him, Knight said he would remain uninterested.

The movie’s director of development, Bill Sy, said Knight’s input hasn’t been needed or solicited because it’s strictly based on a book, for which Brooks has paid the rights.

“I know what my life is all about,” said Knight, who has denounced the book. “I don’t need to do something with a movie.”

The movie is based on the book by the same name written by John Feinstein.

It chronicles the 1985-86 season of the Indiana Hoosiers the year before they won the national championship.

A story in last week’s Hollywood Reporter said Knight would be sent a finished script and be encouraged to participate.

Sy told the Lubbock newspaper that wasn’t true.

“It would be like me making a movie about King Kong and saying ’We’ll send him the script and see what he thinks,”’ Sy said. “That would never happen. The (comment in the Hollywood Reporter story) was sarcastic.”

Filming is set to begin in mid-November in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is expected to go to January.

Casting is still being negotiated but should be complete within a month, officials with the film told the newspaper.