All the way back in March of 2007, Christopher Campbell shared word that the epic soccer player Pelé had signed on with the William Morris Agency (WMA), who were going to package a film in his honor. Finally, The Hollywood Reporter posts that FreemantleMedia Enterprises has signed a development agreement for the company to have "global rights to commission a biographical documentary," a deal brokered by the WMA.

Considering the amount of time it took to just get a deal for the rights, I imagine it will still be a long while before we see Pelé's life in documentary form. No director or producer has been selected, however, the plan is to release it on television, rather than the big screen. Unlike the myriad of biographies on the soccer star, this project is said to have "unparalleled access" to his life.

In case you haven't heard about the legend (in which case you should really read up), here's a brief rundown. He was a poor young man in Brazil who become a professional soccer player at 15, was on the national team by 16, the youngest person in a World Cup final at 17, the youngest to win, and he continued to have a long career that was so popular that a 48-hour ceasefire was held during the Nigerian Civil War so that his exhibition game in Lagos could be enjoyed. Now that is a sports star. I just wish it was a story hitting theaters too. Maybe that will come later.

When I was a very gullible first-grader, somebody told me the name Pelé was short for "Peg Leg". I was then convinced for a very short, very stupid afternoon that the soccer legend actually played the sport with a wooden leg. After I was set straight on the truth, I felt like an idiot, but the worst of it is that I was never able to fully appreciate Pelé's real talents. I couldn't get over the fact that he'd be more impressive to me if he had that handicap. I haven't thought much about him since elementary school, after which I gave up on soccer, but now I'm looking forward to finally learning about Pelé as I wish I had in the beginning -- with a biopic.

The three-time World Cup winner has just signed with the William Morris Agency, which will be packaging a movie in his honor. Even with both legs, Pelé's story should be perfect for a film with plenty of crowd-pleasing dramatic arcs. He grew up in poverty in Brazil and was taught to play by his father, a former pro footballer. At 15, he went pro, at 16, he joined the Brazil national team, and at 17, he was the youngest person to play in a World Cup final, and subsequently the youngest to win. About a decade later he scored his 1000th goal and then won his third Cup. After retiring from playing the sport in Brazil, he functioned as a star player (past his prime) for the New York Cosmos and also co-starred with Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone in John Huston's Victory. I'm not sure who will be best to star as Pelé, but since the actor will have to be repped by WMA, the list is certainly narrowed down. Unfortunately I have no access to the agency's list of talent. And I don't suppose City of God's Alexandre Rodrigues is on it.

Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos had its North American premiere at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, and the film's theatrical run begins in New York tomorrow (and will be expanding across the country in the weeks to come). The film is a magnificent, thrilling documentary -- that just happens to be yours truly's favorite film of the year -- about the rise and fall of the New York Cosmos, a professional soccer team that, for a very brief time in the late 1970s, ruled New York City. With a squad that included such international stars as Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer, the team sold out Giants stadium -- that's over 70,000 people -- multiple times, and won several NASL titles.

Producer John Battsek and co-director/editor Paul Crowder sat down with Cinematical shortly before their film's premiere at Tribeca to talk about Once in a Lifetime, Chelsea (the football club, not the part of Manhattan) and international soccer; the movie-related bits of that conversation appear below.

Cinematical: How did you guys come upon this story? How did the movie come about?

John Battsek: I'd just come off Live Forever which is a sort of Britpop feature doc, and I was talking to a guy -- a friend of mind in New York -- just thinking about what one might do next, and he mentioned the New York Cosmos. And it's one of those things where -- because I'm a big big football fan, big sports fan, big soccer fan -- it was one of those things that just immediately stuck in my head. I had a sort of vague, subliminal memory of big players being in New York, and I know that the Cosmos as a team were this incredibly well-regarded club, but I didn't really know the story, and that just intrigued me. A story set in New York, at that time, about football ...

And I've always had this thing about football ... I mean, it's slightly mean of me, but I've always thought the joke is on America, you know, because America does for the most part regard itself as the greatest country in the world, and yet this sport -- that is played on every square millimeter of the entire planet by everyone if they've got half a second to play it -- and [American] people are like "Soccer ... it's boring," you know? And so the idea of a story set in America, dealing with this sport that America's never really got its head 'round, I thought sounded like it could be really interesting.

Editor's note: The review was originally published on April 14, shortly before the film's Tribeca screenings.

Hundreds of soccer documentaries have been made, but for Americans who love the sport, they generally lead only to further frustration. The domestic efforts to address the sport we love tend to be either defensive (insisting over and over again that soccer is as worthy of adoration as baseball or football) or academic (trying to reason strangers to the game, hoping that, through education, they will come to understand and appreciate it). The European and Latin ones, though more enjoyable, ultimately serve only to reminds us of what we can never have. For the American soccer fan, then, Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos is like a bolt of lightning on a sunny day: an explosion of sudden, blinding power that comes utterly out of nowhere, so unexpected that it leaves you breathless. It's a wide-eyed, delirious celebration of American soccer, the likes of which we've never seen. And it's indescribably wonderful, the kind of film that brings a smile to your face the moment it begins and doesn't let go. Directors Paul Crowder and John Dower clearly love soccer, and they revel in the insanity that was the New York Cosmos, the team that dominated the North American Soccer League (NASL) during its glory days of the late 1970's. Their passion and energy is in every frame of the film, and in combination with sharp editing (Crowder is an editor by trade), an irresistible soundtrack, and a clever, 70's inspired sensibility that touches everything from the movie's fonts to its music, they serve to make the film and its story irresistible.

Hundreds of soccer documentaries have been made, but for Americans who love the sport, they generally lead only to further frustration. The domestic efforts to address the sport we love tend to be either defensive (insisting over and over again that soccer is as worthy of adoration as baseball or football) or academic (trying to reason strangers to the game, hoping that, through education, they will come to understand and appreciate it). The European and Latin ones, though more enjoyable, ultimately serve only to reminds us of what we can never have. For the American soccer fan, then, Once in a Lifetime: The Incredible Story of the New York Cosmos is like a bolt of lightning on a sunny day: an explosion of sudden, blinding power that comes utterly out of nowhere, so unexpected that it leaves you breathless. It's a wide-eyed, delirious celebration of American soccer, the likes of which we've never seen. And it's indescribably wonderful, the kind of film that brings a smile to your face the moment it begins and doesn't let go. Directors Paul Crowder and John Dower clearly love soccer, and they revel in the insanity that was the New York Cosmos, the team that dominated the North American Soccer League (NASL) during its glory days of the late 1970's. Their passion and energy is in every frame of the film, and in combination with sharp editing (Crowder is an editor by trade), an irresistible soundtrack, and a clever, 70's inspired sensibility that touches everything from the movie's fonts to its music, they serve to make the film and its story irresistible.

The New York Cosmos were one of the best, most popular teams in the now-defunct North American Soccer League (NASL). Owned by Warner Brothers, the team could afford to bring in some of the world's greatest soccer players (among them Pele and German great, Franz Beckenbauer), albeit when they were generally past their prime. The story of the team - and the NASL in general - is a fascinating one to soccer dorks like myself, but the fact that a pair of major companies have actually acquired distribution rights to a Cosmos movie is sort of mind-blowing (in a very good way).

The movie, a GreenStreet Films/Passion Pictures production, is called Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos and, thanks to Miramax, it will be hitting American theaters this spring. And, as if that isn't already exciting enough (trust me, it's exciting), ESPN shares the rights with Miramax, and hopes to air the movie on its channels this summer, in concert with coverage of the World Cup.

Man. What with Green Street Hooligans, Goal!, and now this, it's starting to look like Americans might...like soccer. Could it really be?