Zoey Deutch, who stars in buzzy Sundance Film Festival title, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, has nabbed her next leading role.
The actress will play trailblazing U.S. Women’s soccer executive Marla Messing in The 99’ers, a true-life sports drama that Nicole Kassell, known for her award-winning work on HBO’s Watchmen, is directing for Netflix.
An adaptation of Jeré Longman’s book The Girls of Summer: The US Women’s Soccer Team and How It Changed the World, the feature is being produced by Liza Chasin via her 3Dot Productions banner, Hayley Stool, and Ross Greenburg.
According to Netflix, The 99’ers follows the 1990s US Women’s National Soccer Team who, in 1999, under the scorching summer sun and in a stadium filled with 93,000 fans, defied the odds to emerge victorious in a dramatic penalty kick shootout against China in the World Cup final. The monumental win captivated millions worldwide and forever altered the course of women’s sports.
Deutch will play U.S. Women’s soccer executive Marla Messing, who oversaw the massively successful 1999 World Cup tournament that set attendance and TV viewership records and became the largest women’s-only sporting ever.
People We Meet on Vacation star Emily Bader is already on board as soccer legend Mia Hamm.
Shooting begins in February in New Jersey.
Katie Lovejoy (Love at First Sight, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before 3), Dana Stevens (The Woman King, Fatherhood), Peter Hedges (About a Boy) wrote the script.
Messing is on the executive producer roster along with Jill Mazursky and Krista Smith.
Deutch previously played true-life figure and French New Wave icon Jean Seberg in Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, a role that earned her a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting performance. And she next stars in Netflix’s romantic drama Voicemails for Isabelle.
Deutch is currently basking in the glow of the Sundance premiere of Celebrity Sex Pass, the David Wain-directed comedy in which the actress plays a Kansan hairdresser on an epic journey to L.A. in order to cash in on her hall pass to have sex with Jon Hamm. The movie premiered Sunday night and has turned into one of this year’s festival highlights.
Deutch is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson.
