EXCLUSIVE: Emilia Jones (Task) and Alessandro Nivola (Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette) have closed deals to join Zoey Deutch and Emily Bader in The 99’ers, Netflix‘s U.S. Women’s Soccer drama from director Nicole Kassell.
Jones will play Julie Foudy, a prominent member of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team for 17 years, who played midfielder and ultimately elevated to co-captain, and then captain of the team. Nivola plays Tony DiCicco, who was the team’s head coach from 1994-1999, leading them to become world champions in 1999, with 103 wins overall.
As we previously reported, Deutch will play Marla Messing, the trailblazing soccer executive who oversaw the massively successful 1999 World Cup tournament, with Bader playing star forward and striker Mia Hamm.
Based on the 2000 HarperPerennial book The Girls of Summer: The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team and How It Changed the World by Jeré Longman, The 99’ers picks up with the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team in 1999, as they defy the odds to emerge victorious in a dramatic penalty kick shootout against China in the World Cup final, under the scorching summer sun and in a stadium filled with 93,000 fans. This monumental win captivated millions worldwide and forever altered the course of women’s sports.
The film is written by Katie Lovejoy, Dana Stevens, and Peter Hedges. Jill Mazursky and Jamee Decio were the first writers on the project. Liza Chasin is producing for 3Dot Productions, under the company’s deal with the streamer, alongside Hayley Stool and Ross Greenburg, with Marla Messing, Jill Mazursky, and Krista Smith exec producing.
Coming off a lauded turn alongside Tom Pelphrey and Mark Ruffalo in the HBO crime drama Task from Mare of Easttown‘s Brad Ingelsby, Jones will next be seen starring opposite Dominic Sessa in A24’s Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony. She is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, CAA, the UK’s Artist Rights Group, and attorney Chris Abramson.
Currently, Nivola can be seen playing iconic fashion designer Calvin Klein in FX’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette. Also recently seen in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, he is repped by UTA, Range Media Partners, Tavistock Wood in the UK, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.
