News > Macdonald to Direct Bobby Fischer Biopic

Written by David Morgan

Oscar-winning Scottish director Kevin Macdonald has been picked by Universal and Working Title to direct a (probably long-gestating) biopic on chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, who died just two weeks ago. Variety reports that the film has been titled Bobby Fischer Goes to War and centers on Fischer's 1972 chess match against the Soviet Union's champion Boris Spassky. David Edmonds and John Eidinow wrote the book that the movie will be based on, and the current draft of the screenplay was submitted by Shawn Slovo (Catch a Fire). Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing.

It'll be interesting to see how much they touch on the whole outspokenly anti-Semitic/anti-American aspect of Fischer's life. Not to take anything away from the man's awesome chess-playing, but he did once mention that he favored a military coup d'etat in the US that would "arrest all the Jews." Complicated character, that Bobby Fischer.