AGT's Singing Janitor Richard Goodall Lands Movie Deal
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- Richard Goodall is set to be the subject of a feature film from Everard Entertainment and Mad Chance, with Ben Everard and Andrew Lazar producing, after he won AGT's $1 million prize performing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"
- Goodall had worked 23 years as a janitor at a Terre Haute, Indiana middle school and flew for the first time in his life at age 55 to audition for AGT in Los Angeles, where judge Howie Mandel discovered him via a viral video
- Chris Parizo is writing the script; he has twice been featured on the Black List, for Viceland in 2020 and Kazan in 2023, and is repped by Chris Riddenhour at IAG and John Zaozirny at Bellevue Productions
- Everard Entertainment, founded in 2023, is also producing Apple TV's Way of the Warrior Kid (Chris Pratt, McG, releasing November 25) and Amazon's The Man with the Bag with Schwarzenegger, Ritchson, and Awkwafina (Prime Video, December 2)
- Mad Chance has a track record with unlikely-real-life biopics including Nyad, American Sniper, I Love You Phillip Morris, and George and Tammy, and recently produced G20 for Amazon MGM and Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice for 20th
- The article draws a direct parallel to Paul Potts, whose bullied-shop-assistant-to-opera-singer arc after Britain's Got Talent became the 2013 James Corden film One Chance
Why it matters: The film gives Goodall a second commercial windfall on top of AGT's $1 million prize and pairs his narrative with Mad Chance — the producer behind proven awards-grade biopics like American Sniper and Nyad — raising the project's theatrical ceiling. Everard's pipeline (Apple TV, Prime Video) signals the producers have distribution partners ready to package and platform the movie once the script is locked.
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