Cristiano Ronaldo in Talks for Facebook Docuseries
The soccer superstar already has a scripted project in the works with Facebook.
Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is in talks with Facebook about starring in a docuseries for the social network's one-year-old Watch video platform, sources have confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
The conversations are still early and a deal is not in place for a show, these sources say. Matador Content and Religion of Sports, the company behind Facebook series Tom vs. Time, would produce the project alongside Dirty Robber. If a deal comes together, it would expand on an existing relationship that Ronaldo has with Facebook, where he is currently producing a soccer drama.
The Portuguese soccer player is a worldwide star and his 120 million Facebook followers make him the most-followed person on the social network. He currently plays for Real Madrid and led Portugal during its World Cup showing in Russia before the team was eliminated during Round of 16 competition.
Facebook announced in May that it had given a straight-to-series order to a Ronaldo-produced scripted drama about a high school girls soccer team in upstate New York. Memphis Beat creators Liz Garcia and Josh Harto are writing and executive producing the series, which hails from Paul Lee's wiip studio.
Soccer is an especially popular topic on Facebook, which has live streamed matches from the Champions League, Major League Soccer and Mexico's Liga MX over the last year.
Facebook declined to comment on the Ronaldo docuseries. The social network launched Watch last August as a portal for serialized and highly produced video content of varying lengths. Among the projects in the works for the platform are Queen America starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Elizabeth Olsen comedy Sorry for Your Loss and drama Sacred Lies.
Ronaldo is repped by CAA and Polaris Sports.
Variety first reported the news.
