Exclusive:'I'm a little jealous of Ryan Reynolds': Michael Eisner addresses plans for Portsmouth TV documentary series
Welcome to Wrexham has been broadcasted for five series since its launch in August 2022
Michael Eisner admits he is ‘a little jealous’ of Ryan Reynolds’ blockbusting success with his Wrexham series.
Now the former Disney chairman wants to get in on the act - and is exploring the possibility of Pompey creating their own television documentary.
Since its launch in August 2022, Welcome to Wrexham has enjoyed stunning international recognition, catapulting the Welsh club into a global brand and reaping the benefits financially.
The Eisner family, through Tornante, became Pompey owners three-and-a-half years before Reynolds and Rob McElhenney spotted the potential of the non-league Red Dragons by purchasing them.
Now Welcome to Wrexham has been running for five seasons - and in April was renewed for another three by FX.
And Michael Eisner has revealed he’s currently working on a ‘good idea’ which could see the production of a football documentary focused on Pompey.
‘We can make Pompey more and more important worldwide’
The Blues chairman told The News: ‘We have to increase our merchandise sales, Wrexham have done a great job in getting it out there.
‘We were there before Wrexham, but we decided that, because of my background in Hollywood - mogul in the worst sense of the word, everything that people suspect about Americans - that we were going to concentrate on football.
‘We were not going to do what Ryan Reynolds did, who is a movie star. I am a little jealous that he did it because we could have done it - and now we will be doing it to increase the revenue of the club.
‘When we came here, someone said to me never say “brand”, brand is a bad word, so I don’t say brand. But Pompey is such a positive force that I think we can, in a very slow, methodical way, make it more and more important worldwide, because worldwide today is very different to worldwide 20 years ago.
‘We’ve had a lot of discussions with Andrew (Cullen) about a TV programme, we don’t want to invade the changing room. I would say we have a lot of magic that nobody else knows, but we don’t want to embarrass ourselves, we don’t want to get a quick fix and some negative thing which looks great.
‘On television, we want a positive.’
Became Wrexham owners in February 2021
Wrexham have enjoyed remarkable progress up the leagues since Reynolds and McElhenney bought them in February 2021.
Having inherited a National League club, they have overseen the Red Dragons’ drive to the Championship, where they finished seventh last season - 11 places higher than Pompey.
The rise has been captured by the cameras for Welcome to Wrexham, with the popular documentary series winning a glut of television awards along their journey.
And Eisner is in the process of coming up with his own Pompey format.
He added: ‘I don’t want to tell you the idea we have because I don’t want anybody to steal until we write it. But we have a good idea we’re working on between the US and the UK media companies.
‘I don’t know if there are takers, we’ve got to sell it. When I was a buyer, I could answer that question - as a seller, that’s not so easy!’