MGM puts Obree trailer on YouTube

Over on BikeBiz.com I’ve been closely following the progress of Graeme Obree bio-flick The Flying Scotsman since 2002.

Very closely. I knew of its cancellation before any of the contracted actors.

I was really happy when the film was resurrected and last year was happy to report on the film scoring a distribution deal with MGM. The movie has been shown in the US in a few selected cinemas but distribution in the rest of the world is patchy. So, before you get a chance to watch the real thing, check out the MGM trailer:

I love Steven Berkoff’s character assassination of Hein Verbruggen, then president of the Union Cycliste Internationale. The blazers at the UCI didn’t like Obree’s ’superman’ position so banned the bike. In the movie, Verbruggen - a Dutchman - is portrayed as a German and the UCI becomes the WCF, the World Cycling Federation.

That’s the glossy Hollywood version. But YouTube has also been loaded with footage of the real thing, Graeme Obree’s smashing of the World Hour Record in 1993: