Upcoming Matthew McConaughey Movie About Soccer Team Heading To China Has Been Scrapped Over ‘Disturbing Allegations’

Although Matthew McConaughey was heard reprising Buster Moon late last year in Sing 2, we haven’t seen the actor in a live-action movie since 2019’s The Gentlemen, where he teamed with director Guy Ritchie. Well, that wait is about to get longer, as it’s been reported that McConaughey’s upcoming movie about a soccer team that went to China has been scrapped due to “disturbing allegations.”

Skydance Media has pulled the plug on Dallas Sting, a sports feature project based on true events being directed by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s Kari Skogland. Matthew McConaughey was set to play Bill Kinder, the coach of a Dallas-based girls soccer team that traveled to China in 1984 and beat some of the world’s best women’s teams, which included emerging victorious over Italy in the championship game. Despite Dallas Sting being only six weeks away from beginning principal photography, THR shared that Skydance and producers pulled the plug on it after being alerted about the aforementioned allegations concerning aspects of this “true story.” 

No specific details were provided on what these allegations entailed, but the results of an investigation were enough for the powers-that-be behind Dallas Sting to decide not to move forward with it. An unnamed source mentioned that Skydance and the Dallas Sting producers were “disappointed by the development,” as they felt this was a story worth telling to audiences. It’s not often projects like these are cancelled mere weeks before cameras stat rolling, but hey, at least this didn’t end up being a Batgirl-like situation.

Matthew McConaughey would have joined in Dallas Sting by Last Man Standing’s Kaitlyn Dever, who was cast as Coach Bill Kinder’s daughter. While things didn’t work out with Dallas Sting, Dever does have a big October ahead of her. Not only is she appearing opposite George Clooney and Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise, she’s also starring in a quirky retelling of Romeo and Juliet called Rosaline, which will be viewable with a Hulu subscription. 

Going back to Dallas Sting, the project was written by GLOW duo Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, and the production team reportedly spent a lot of effort and money on the audition process to find actual soccer players to appear in the movie who would have been trained to deliver compelling performances. So what went wrong here? Was it discovered that aspects of the story never actually happened, or do these “disturbing allegations” refer to information about one or more of the individuals involved? For now, that will remain a mystery, but perhaps the truth will come out someday.

Since Dallas Sting is no longer on the table, we’ll just have to wait and see what Matthew McConaughey’s next live-action movie ends up being, though on the animated front, he is open to doing Sing 3, provided a certain condition is met. McConaughey also expressed interest in finally starring in a movie with Reese Witherspoon where they actually share screen time.