Liam Neeson is reuniting with The Marksman director Robert Lorenz for a different genre. According to Deadline, Neeson will play coach and trainer Jack Blatherwick in the upcoming biographical sports drama film Believe 13. The movie is based on the inspiring true story of how Blatherwick mentored a rising teen hockey star after he suffered a devastating injury.
Robert Lorenz will direct Believe 13. Randy Brown has penned the screenplay, inspired by the story of Blatherwick and Jack “Jabby” Jablonski. Lorez previously directed Neeson in The Marksman and In the Land of Saints and Sinners.
Neeson will take on a very different role in the new hockey drama
The producers describe Neeson’s character in Believe 13 as “Jack, a retired hockey legend who is brilliant, isolated, and losing his sense of purpose. When he meets Jabby, a transcendent teenage talent whose injury on the ice threatens to consume the boy with despair, the two forge an unlikely friendship that ultimately saves them both and inspires Jabby’s high school hockey team to achieve the impossible.”
The official synopsis of Believe 13 reads, “follows two men from different generations brought together by a shared love of hockey. What begins as an unlikely connection born of tragedy grows into a profound, lifelong friendship that transcends the game.”
Blatherwick was a revered hockey training physiologist and high-school coach. He famously helped Herb Brooks train the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team, best known for the “Miracle on Ice” hockey game where they defeated the Soviet Union national ice hockey team. Jack “Jabby” Jablonski was an emerging hockey player who suffered a major spinal injury that left him paralyzed. Despite the ailment, Jablonski and his high school team went on to win the state championship, becoming a symbol of resilience across the nation.
Believe 13 is set to begin principal photography in Minnesota in early 2027. Additional casting is still underway.
Originally reported on ComingSoon.
