1. Last night saw the premiere of Wimbledon, starring American golden girl Kirsten Dunst and British actor Paul Bettany. They form a romantic mixed-double in this comedy about two tennis players who fall in love while competing for the coveted Wimbledon trophy.
2. Tennis is fast becoming a popular sport among filmmakers. A new film called Tennis, Anyone? will soon be released featuring the much-adored ER star Noah Wyle.
3. Football and film are deeply embedded parts of British culture and over the years a number of filmmakers have brought the two together. One of the classic football flicks is Escape to Victory released in 1981. The film is set in a prisoner of war camp during the second world war and features Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone starring alongside a host of famous footballers, most notably Pele and Bobby Moore.
4. One of the most recent successes in the fruitful relationship between football and film is Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham (2001), which became one of the biggest British hits in America in recent years. The film is about a young girl from London, played by Parminder Nagra, who despite growing up in a traditional Sikh family tries to make it as a top female footballer.
5. Not content with playing the beautiful game alongside Pele, Sylvester Stallone edged his name in the history of silver screen sports with Rocky (1976), one of the classic boxing films of all time. Stallone, who starred and wrote the script, based the film on a boxing match he saw in which the previously unknown Chuck Wepner beat Muhammad Ali .
6. Ali has inspired many filmmakers. Most recently Michael Mann, who in his film Ali, with Will Smith in the lead role, charted the life of the boxing legend.
7. Films based on cricket are rarities. However, this summer saw the release of Wondrous Oblivion starring Delroy Lindo. The film, set in south London during the 1960s, sees Lindo teach the son of a Jewish migrant couple how to play cricket. The film deals with wider social issues and portrays the daily trials faced by immigrant communities.
8. Cricket was also a central theme in the Bollywood blockbuster Lagaan (2001) which had an international star-cast. Lagaan is set in rural India in the late 19th century when the country was under British rule. The film is based on the story of a group of farmers who due to lack of rainfall are unable to pay their agricultural tax (Lagaan) and are challenged to a game of cricket by the British officer in charge, played by Paul Blackthorne. If the villagers win the match their tax will be waived, however, if they fail in their sporting task, they will have to pay double. The film offers a unique insight into the history of India while celebrating the triumph of human determination and spirit.
9. There have been films based on more unconventional sports. For instance the newly released comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story starring Ben Stiller. In a film vaguely reminiscent of Lagaan a group of men are forced into a dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas to help save their local gym from being bought by a health and fitness company.
10. What could be more unconventional than Dodgeball? Try a Jamaican bobsled team. Cool Runnings, starring the late John Candy , was based on the true story of the first Jamaican bobsled team trying to make it to the winter Olympics.
