Comment: How to bring sporting icons to screens

It’s a really busy time for us at Sylver Entertainment at the moment, and we feel very privileged to have two films out within a couple of months of each other. Both our Peter Schmeichel and Damon Hill documentaries have been picked up by Sky in the UK, which we are really happy about. We’ve another about the late, great rugby player Jonah Lomu, currently in production and due for release later in the year.

It’s obviously been an exceptionally difficult time for a smaller production company, indeed any production company, to get things made in this market, but hopefully, both these films will show that if the story is strong enough on paper, then there is a way to get it green lit.

With Peter’s story, it is the end of a long journey that started about three years ago. I worked with Peter’s agent, Melissa Chappell, in the distant past, and so I gave her a call shortly after Peter released his book ‘One’. We were looking for our next sports IP whilst still in production of our last two films, McEnroe and The Greatest Game, and Peter’s story really grabbed us. Our distributor, Dogwoof, connected us with Sky Showtime, who were looking to invest in their first big production in Scandinavia and across their territories, and their interest helped move the project forward incredibly quickly, having laid dormant for about twelve months after conception.

I can’t actually ever remember seeing a film about a goalkeeper. I’m not sure Stallone in ‘Escape to Victory’ counts, but I also can’t remember seeing a keeper that had more impact on me than Peter in his pomp for Manchester United. And I’m a City fan! He had such a huge personality and totally commanded the area; his 60 metre one arm throws, and way of saving the ball were utterly unique. I wouldn’t have wanted to have been Gary Neville or anyone else in the Manchester United defence when he was in goal. If you made a mistake, Peter would howl at you.

Like most filmmakers, we map out our stories and refine our treatments so that they will hopefully grab the attention of broadcasters, and with all of Sylver’s films, we try to bring family into it as much as possible. We believe that it is the best way to connect people with our subjects. We didn’t have to work too hard on that aspect of this because Peter’s family story is incredible. He is the son of a talented jazz musician who was also a spy. Football fans will know the footballing story, but we always try to expand on the parts that people won’t necessarily be familiar with.

Hopefully, early on, we gained his trust because Peter was extremely collaborative and gave our brilliant director, Owen Davies, access to everything that he requested. That’s also key when making biographical films. The greater the access, the more the audience is let in, so we were able to film with Peter’s wife Laura, his daughter Cecilie and son Kasper, who has obviously followed very successfully in his father’s footsteps and even his band. Peter himself is a great musician, a legacy of his Dad, Tolek. He also granted us access to hours of personal family archives that gave us an intimate insight into his family life right the way through his career.

It is always great to get the buy-in of a club like Manchester United, and they were extremely accommodating. Their behind-the-scenes archive helped flesh out some incredible moments at the training ground and in the changing rooms during important matches that have never been seen before.

Schmeichel premiered in Copenhagen in early February and is now on a limited theatrical run at home cinemas in Manchester before its release on Sky Documentaries. It’s always satisfying when you take something from the genesis of an idea and see something tangible. That is the most satisfying thing about making documentaries but it’s also a huge responsibility as you are telling someone’s life story. Working with people like Peter and Damon was an utter pleasure and we hope you enjoy watching these two very different documentaries as much as we enjoyed making them.

Simon Lazenby is lead presenter of F1 for Sky Sports and co-founder & producer of Sylver Entertainment