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Ernie Hudson is the latest addition to Bobby Farrelly’s Champions, a movie about a Special Olympics team that features a cast of actors with intellectual disabilities. As Deadline reports, the movie is a Hollywood adaptation of the Goya Award-winning Spanish film Campeones, which follows an arrogant basketball coach who begins to reevaluate his life once he’s forced to lead a team with intellectual disabilities as community service.
The original Spanish film was inspired by the real-life Special Olympics team Aderes, from Valencia, which won twelve Spanish championships between 1999 and 2014. Directed by Javier Fesser from a script he wrote with David Marqués, Campeones became a box office hit in Spain, earning many awards and nominations, including the Goya Award for Best Film, Best New Actor (Jesús Vidal), and Best Original Song. Due to the movie’s popularity, Campeones was even selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at 2019’s 91st Academy Awards, but was never nominated. So, it’s no wonder that the film is getting a Hollywood version.
Although there’s still little information about Champions, the Hollywood adaptation should follow the same story beats, with a grumpy coach learning to respect people with intellectual disabilities. And you know what? That’s totally fine! We all need feel-good stories from time to time, and if they help de-marginalize groups that still suffer from social exclusion, even better.
Hudson is a Hollywood legend with almost five decades of success behind his back. The actor is dearly remembered as one of the original Ghostbusters and recently showed up for the franchise's latest sequel, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Hudson also boats fan-favorite roles in Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, and helped to turn films such as Congo and Miss Congeniality into classics.
Hudson will join a cast that already includes stars Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Cheech Marin, and Matt Cook. The group of actors with intellectual disabilities featured in the film includes Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Tom Sinclair, James Day Keith, Alex Hintz, Casey Metcalfe, Bradley Edens, and Champ Pederson.
Farrelly directs from a script by Mark Rizzo. Champions is produced by Paul Brooks, Scott Niemeyer, and Jeremy Plager, with Harrelson, Brad Kessell, Alexander Jooss, Luis Manso, Alvaro Longoria, and Fesser executive producing. Focus Feature’s Joe Toto and Carlen Johnson are overseeing the project, with the company distributing the film domestically.
There’s is no release window set for Champions.