Tom Francis Sings His Way Into Peter Berg's World War II Football Drama

Tom Francis co-stars in The Mosquito Bowl, Peter Berg's film about four college football stars who served as Marines in World War II, Variety reported on October 30, 2026.

The story is a true one. It is based on Buzz Bissinger's book The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, about a football game Marines played while preparing for the Battle of Okinawa. Francis plays David Schreiner. Nicholas Galitzine plays John McLaughry, Ray Nicholson plays Tony Butkovich, and Bill Skarsgård plays Bob Baumann. In the real story, McLaughry is the only one of the four men who survived the war.

Francis's most unexpected role is as a singer. The real David Schreiner was not a singer, but Berg added a last-minute scene in which Francis sings in a bar before the men are shipped off to war. Francis said Berg sent him the song to learn overnight, for filming the next day. He had expected to sing around a campfire. The scene was fully staged.

The battle scenes are a different matter. Francis described the battlefield depiction, which Berg shaped with cinematographer Jacques Jouffret, as visceral and intense, and in places uncomfortable to watch. The film deals with death and loss, and Francis's account of it is a sober one.

Francis comes to the role with a stage and screen record. He won a Laurence Olivier Award and earned a Tony nomination for his Broadway debut opposite Nicole Scherzinger in Jamie Lloyd's Sunset Boulevard. He made his movie debut in Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly and appeared in the fifth and final season of Netflix's You. Variety also reports that he signed with the U.S. agency CAA, and that he listed Berg at the top of the directors he most wanted to work with, because of Friday Night Lights.

The film's path to audiences has been public for some time. Netflix announced in April 2025 that Nicholson and Francis had joined the lead cast. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the film premiered in a Gala slot at AFI Fest on October 22, 2026. Netflix then released a trailer on October 26. As of October 30, the film is in select theatres, according to Netflix's Tudum page.

For Francis, the film is a step into screen work after his stage success. For the audience, it is a story that rests on a single, strange football game played by men who knew what was coming next.