Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug is the subject of a biopic, “Perfect,” to be directed by Olivia Wilde.
“Best script I’ve ever read,” was posted on Wilde’s social media. “This story is unreal. I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to tell it my way.”
The film is based on Strug’s autobiography, “Landing on my Feet, a Diary of Dreams.”
Strug, now a 42-year-old mom, became one of the household names of the 1996 Atlanta Games. She helped the U.S. women’s gymnastics team to the program’s first Olympic title, hitting a vault while injured and tearing two left ankle ligaments (though it turned out the last vault wasn’t necessary to win).
The injury forced her out of the remaining individual finals. She retired soon after the Olympics.
“This is a film about what real power looks like,” Wilde said in a press release. “It is an excruciatingly beautiful underdog story that will thrust the audience into the heart of Kerri Strug with unblinking, raw honesty. It is an epic sports movie that will deliver on all the wish-fulfillment that makes those films so thrilling to watch. At the same time, it is unlike any sports movie you have seen before.”
Fellow gymnasts Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles were the subjects of TV biopics after their first Olympics.
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