Whatever Happened to the Wartime Wanderers Film?

Remember, quite some time ago now, there was quite a lot of discussion about a film being made which would be about Bolton Wanderers?

The movie, entitled Wartime Wanderers, follows the story of the Bolton Wanderers team who went off to fight in World War 2. When then Whites captain, Harry Goslin, gave a rousing speech after a game in front of 23,000 fans at Burnden Park, then led the whole team to the recruitment office to sign up.

How the 53rd Field Regiment of the Bolton Artillery faced some of the fiercest fighting in France, North Africa and Italy. How they became a brilliant regimental football side. How the people, the players, the soldiers, fought and survived together. How a young Nat Lofthouse filled up the hole they left behind back home, and finally, how only one of them didn't return home - Harry Goslin.

It was a story I had no idea about prior to the announcement of the film, and one I immediately came fascinated by and one I really wanted to see on film.

So when many months went by without hearing as much of a murmur about the film, I decided to try and find out what happened to it - and to my delight - it's still alive.

I contacted the produceright,  David Evans, back in July (yes, I've taken a really long time getting around to writing this) and he told me:

"What we're concentrating on now is the 3-part documentary as we think this will give the feature film a boost as well as generating income in its own right. The documentary web site is likely to be updated fairly regularly now and we have a target date of end October 2015 for completion."

We already have 60 minutes in final edit and will be working on the remainder in the coming few weeks."

Meaning, that a three part documentary, narrated by Bradley Walsh and entitled 'The Team that Went to War', has been/is being made, which will be used in order to generate revenue, interest and help create the actual feature film Wartime Wanderers.

In the above quote Mr Evans said that they were aiming for an end of October 2015 date for the completion of the documentary, but I've been unable to find any announcement that shows that the date was reached as of yet. I've contacted Mr Evans again, and hope to hear back from him soon on any updates.

In regards to Wartime Wanderers, when asked if the fairly high quality cast, featuring the likes of Jonathan Pryce, Sean McGuire and Matthew McNulty, were still in place Mr Evans said:

"Cast is a moving feast. While we still believe we can get all those individuals (since they've read the script and come back positive) we can't confirm anyone until the full funding and director are in place."

If you'd like to read up more on the development of the film or the documentary, then you should visit the websites for both. Wartime Wanderers by clicking here, and The Team that Went to War by clicking here.

If we here any more on these two great projects, and we really hope we do, we'll keep you updated.