It didn’t take long for the movie biz to tap into World Championship Wrestling’s 35 million weekly viewers with a feature designed to cash in on the franchise’s broad fan base. On September 27, Warner Bros. began filming an untitled wrestling comedy starring both real WCW wrestlers and actor David Arquette, to be released in spring 2000. The movie, helmed by Brian Robbins, director of Nickelodeon Movies’ Goodburger and Paramount’s Varsity Blues, will aim for a family audience. According to studio sources, the comedy ‘will be even more broad’ than that found in WCW matches, as producers hope to lure non-wrestling fans to theaters as well. The story will be about a loser wrestling fan (Arquette) who is undone when his favorite matman is humiliated in his quest to win the championship belt.

Time Warner, which owns the WCW grappling circuit, is using the full resources of the franchise to draft wrestler cast members. According to studio sources, a top WCW star is playing the would-be titleholder, although no names have been dropped to date. VR