EXCLUSIVE – Interview With Tabacula – Dixie The People’s Legend

By • Jan 6th, 2010 • Category: News |

There have been many players that stand out in Everton’s history, Southall, Labone, the Holy Trinity, the Goldenvision, but they all live under the shadow of the legend that is William Ralph Dean.

Jah Jussa of the production company Tabacula has agreed to do an interview about the movie they’re making about the late great Dixie Dean.

So what inspired you to make a drama documentary about the late great Dixie Dean?

We were looking for a project to throw ourselves into.  We were searching for a big enough subject to produce a feature length drama documentary.  And we were really surprised that nothing had been done on the life and times of William Ralph Dean.  If he was an American there would be countless films and biographies about him – you only have to look at what there is about Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth – even Seabiscuit…

What exactly will this drama documentary comprise of?

The film will be a combination of interviews with football luminaries, historians, friends and family together with archive footage/photographs and reconstructions of key incidents in Bill Dean’s career

Of course we all know about his headline achievements, his 60 goals and the trophies he won, but have you found out anything surprising that fans may not have been aware of?

There are plenty of people who would like to belittle the record – because it’s pre-WW2, the skill levels were not as good, and most of all, Dean only scored headers, having seen a weakness in opposing defences. Well one fact about the 60 goals is that 20 were scored with his left foot, 20 with his right and only 20 were headed. He was 21 years old and less than two years earlier he’d been given the last rights after his motorbike accident in Holywell…

Have you enjoyed working on this production?

We all love football so being involved in the production has been a real pleasure.

Of course this was first talked about some time ago and seemed to go quite quiet, what are the problems you’ve encountered?

I think it’s fair to say that the project has been credit crunched.  At one point we had some big hitters virtually putting their hands in their pockets, and they subsequently had to retract their offers because of the recession.  And Tabacula, as a company, have been unable to concentrate solely on the film as we had hoped.  However, the interest is still there…

So when do you expect to start filming the movie then?

We’ll be back on the interviews at the end of January and looking to start the reconstructions in May.  The aim is to have the film out in time for Christmas 2010.

Are you still looking for people to invest in the movie?

We’re still looking for investment.

We have a board with considerable pedigree in this area, especially from Bill Kenwright who is of course a producer.  What sort of support has the club offered you in producing this movie?

The club have been great.  Mr Kenwright was one of the first investors and we’ve had plenty of co-operation over access to the ground.  The former players foundation has also been helpful in gaining access to players who, even if they didn’t play alongside Dean, knew him and will attest to his strength of character…

Have you worked much with the wider footballing community to help you in this project?

I think that it’s possible to celebrate the achievement of Dean no matter what club you support – there are not too many teams that can say that at any one moment in time, they had the best player in the world playing for them.  Maradona, Cruyf, Pele, Puskas, di Stefano, Zidane…these are all players about whom there would be no arguments if you said they were the best players of their era… and Everton, in Dean, had the best player of his era.  Between 1927 – 1933 he was the best.  No doubt.

When it is finished where do you think we’ll be able to watch it?

We going to start with a cinema release, which the film will warrant, but that will also bring big tax breaks for the production.  Then we’re looking at a possible broadcast followed by the dvd/blu ray release in the final quarter of 2010.

For more information go to http://tabacula.com/

Dixie Dean – Extended Trailer



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