Character Name: Eddie Martel

Success is often a matter of blind luck, and some deserving people, talented in their own right, never get a crack at it. Such has been the fate of Shane “Footsteps” Falco (KEANU REEVES), once a hot All American prospect on the football field. Shane can only regret what’s behind him, and can’t even begin to imagine what’s ahead. But Fate is not through with Shane. When League players decide to strike, leaving the prospect of empty fields (and equally empty stadiums) for team owners to contemplate, the Washington Sentinels scramble for a solution. When they bring contentious and self-retired head coach Jimmy McGinty (GENE HACKMAN) back into the fold, McGinty seeks out players who will play with their hearts rather than their wallets.

For the League, the situation is a disaster, but for Shane and a mismatched crew of outsiders, it’s a second chance to grab at sports stardom. As they amaze everyone with their winning streak, the ragtag group discovers in itself the ability to hope for more than they ever thought possible…maybe even the playoffs, which has been denied to the Sentinels for seven years.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Bel-Air Entertainment, The Replacements, a rousing comedy starring two of America’s most acclaimed and popular stars, Keanu Reeves (the worldwide Warner Bros. Pictures smash hits The Matrix and The Devil’s Advocate, Speed) and two-time Academy Award winner Gene Hackman (Best Supporting Actor for Unforgiven and Best Actor for The French Connection). ORLANDO JONES (Liberty Heights, Mad TV) also stars as Clifford Franklin, a 100-meter qualifier in the Olympics, with an unfortunate lifelong case of butterfingers, who joins Shane on the team; BROOKE LANGTON (Melrose Place) as Annabelle Farrell, the Sentinels’ football-crazy head cheerleader whose passion for the game goes up a notch or two in the presence of Shane Falco; JON FAVREAU (Swingers, TV’s Marciano) as Daniel Bateman, a Navy SEAL-turned-L.A. cop, who makes up for a lost kidney with an overload of grit; RHYS IFANS (Notting Hill) as Nigel The Leg Gruff, a wiry Welsh soccer star kicker from Cardiff; BRETT CULLEN (Apollo 13, Courage Under Fire) as spoiled-rotten Sentinels regular quarterback Eddie Martel; and JACK WARDEN (whose remarkable career spans from From Here to Eternity to Bulworth) as millionaire Sentinels owner Edward O’Neil.

123►