Maurice Flitcroft Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

The Phantom of the Open (out now on multiple VOD platforms), however, is a pleasing exception to the formula – a sporting biopic in which the improbable hero’s outright crapness at his inexplicably chosen game is not just frankly stated but actively celebrated. A middle-aged shipyard worker who blagged his way into golf’s 1976 Open Championship and proceeded to shoot the worst score on record, Maurice Flitcroft entered history mostly as a tabloid amusement. Buoyed up by a performance of twinkly good humour, with just an edge of yearning sadness, from Mark Rylance, Craig Roberts’s cheery film turns Flitcroft from punchline to paladin – a sportsman whose defiant lack of gifts dealt a symbolic blow to golf’s stuffy, wealthy gatekeepers.

Carson Burton The formula for many sports movies is classically simple yet satisfying. Step one: introduce an underdog. Step two: training montage.

Sony Pictures Classics announced today that its golf film The Phantom of the Open, starring Academy Award winner Mark Rylance, Academy Award nominee Sally Hawkins and BAFTA Award nominee Rhys Ifans, will open in New York and Los Angeles on June 3, with a wider release in additional markets set for the following weeks.

Guy Lodge Film CriticIf Maurice Flitcroft hadn’t really existed, a British comedy would surely have invented him. A humble shipyard worker from Barrow-in-Furness who decided, on a rogue middle-aged whim, to enter the British Open despite never having played a round of golf in his life, he was practically a living, breathing Ealing Studios hero.

Sony Pictures Classics drove for the green and acquired a Mark Rylance golf comedy called "The Phantom of the Open." The film comes from director Craig Roberts and is a true story based on one of the worst rounds of golf ever. Mark Rylance stars in "The Phantom of the Open," previously titled "The Fantastic Flitcrofts," as Maurice Flitcroft, a dreamer and unrelenting optimist who managed to gain entry to the British Open Golf Championship.

Sony Pictures Classics has taken North America, Thailand, France, and China rights to Craig Roberts’ The Phantom of the Open.

Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins and Rhys Ifans have joined Mark Rylance in the comedy-drama The Fantastic Flitcrofts from director Craig Roberts. The indie sees Rylance play Maurice Flitcroft, a dreamer and unrelenting optimist who managed to enter the British Open golf tournament in 1976, only to record the worst round in Open history and become a folk hero in the process.

Oscar and BAFTA winner Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies, Dunkirk, The BFG) is set to take the lead in comedy-drama The Fantastic Flitcrofts, to be directed by Craig Roberts (Just Jim, Eternal Beauty) and based on the adapted screenplay by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2).

Tom Grater International Film ReporterEXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winner Mark Rylance is set to make his big-screen comedy debut in The Fantastic Flitcrofts, a golf movie written by Paddington 2 scribe Simon Farnaby.Bridge Of Spies and Dunkirk actor Rylance will play Maurice Flitcroft, a dreamer and unrelenting optimist, who managed to gain entry to The British Open Golf Championship qualifying in 1976 and subsequently shot the worst round in Open history, becoming a folk hero in the process.Craig Roberts,