Lots of American soccer fans were speculating back in June that the popular interest in the World Cup would lead to further widespread acceptance of soccer as an actual spectator sport, and not just something you play in elementary school and then abandon for college football. There's no real evidence yet that that's happened-- vuvuzelas seem to be more enduring than support for Landon Donovan-- but the movie industry is going to try and start cashing in anyway. A project previously titled Confessions of a Little League Coach, now called Slide, is being reconfigured to focus on soccer instead of baseball, and Gerard Butler is apparently in talks to both produce and star in the film.

Rather than playing some hunky footballer himself, Butler would play a father who takes the soccer coaching job in order to get closer to his kid. As The LA Times explains it, Butler had been on board as a producer previously but is now in talks to star thanks to the sports switch. Seven Pounds director Gabriele Muccino is apparently looking to make up for that disaster by directing the script by Robbie Fox, which doesn't yet have a home at a studio.

The last time a big-name star showed up onscreen coaching a children's soccer team it was Will Ferrell in Kicking and Screaming, a comedy you've probably already forgotten by now because of how few people saw it. Can Butler turn it around with his Scottish good looks? Given that he's the star of The Bounty Hunter there are no guarantees, but so long as Muccino has learned his lesson from Seven Pounds, I'm willing to hold out some hope.