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Borg and McEnroe met in four Grand Slam finals, with McEnroe winning three. S&G and Barratts/EMPICS Sport

'You cannot be serious!' Shia LaBeouf to play John McEnroe in film about Borg rivalry

Borg/McEnroe is due to begin shooting later this year.

SHIA LABEOUF IS to play the original tennis rebel John McEnroe in a new film about his rivalry with the Swedish star Bjorn Borg.

Borg/McEnroe will follow the two men’s epic battles on and off the court through the 1970s and 1980s, the Swedish producers Film Vaest announced at the Cannes film festival today.

The fiery American star revolutionised the image of the sport, bringing rockstar petulance to the centre court.

LaBeouf too loves to prick convention, famously showing his contempt for the celebrity circus by wearing a brown paper bag on his head at a red-carpet premiere at the Berlin film festival two years ago.

The actor is at Cannes for the premiere of British director Andrea Arnold’s road movie American Honey, which is vying for the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or.

The producers said the Icelandic actor Sverrir Gudnason will play the “Swedish iceman” Borg with Stellan Skarsgard — who co-starred in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — cast as his influential coach Lennart Bergelin.

The film will be shot in the autumn in Sweden, London, Monaco and New York.

© – AFP 2016

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