Olivia Wilde on directing Kerri Strug biopic Perfect: “best script I’ve ever read”

In the history of iconic sports moments, it would be hard to top Kerri Strug’s heroic vault performance with a sprained ankle, clinching victory for the 1996 U.S. Women’s Team, dubbed the Magnificent Seven. Actually, it’s surprising that it’s taken twentysome years for a Strug movie to enter development, what with that kind of cinema-worthy dramatic buildup. But that wait is now ended: The Hollywood Reporter announces that Olivia Wilde will direct a Strug biopic called Perfect for Riverstone Pictures and Pulse Films.

On Twitter, Wilde called Ronnie Sandahl’s script for Perfect the “best script I’ve ever read. I worked hard to get this gig.” The script is based on Strug’s perfectly titled memoir Landing On My Feet, A Diary Of Dreams, which she co-wrote with John P. Lopez; Sandahl also wrote the 2017 sports-themed film Borg vs. McEnroe.

Wilde also enthused in a statement, “This is a film about what real power looks like… 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.”

Wilde is also executive producing Perfect along with Sandahl, Deepak Nayar, Marisa Clifford and Sandahl. In the meantime, she is helming and starring in the psychological thriller Don’t Worry, Darling, about a 1950s housewife whose reality starts to crack, which sounds more like The Yellow Wallpaper than The Matrix. Earlier this month, Wilde won the Independent Spirit Award for best first feature for the critically acclaimed Booksmart. She also recently appeared in the Clint Eastwood movie Richard Jewell.