''The Damned United'' is directed by Tom Hooper (John Adams, Longford, Elizabeth I), and adapted for the screen by Peter Morgan (''The Queen'', ''The Last King of Scotland'', ''Frost/Nixon'') from the bestselling and critically acclaimed novel by David Peace, ''The Damned United'' stars Michael Sheen (''The Deal'', ''The Queen'', ''Frost/Nixon'') as the legendary, opinionated football manager Brian Clough with Timothy Spall (''Secrets and Lies'', ''Sweeney Todd'', ''The Last Samurai'') as his right-hand man, only friend, and crutch Peter Taylor. Overachieving and eccentric football manager Brian Clough was on his way to take over at the country's most successful, and most reviled football club: Leeds United, home to a generation of fiercely competitive but ageing players. The battle he'd face there would make or break the club - or him. David Peace's extraordinarily inventive novel tells the story of a world characterised by fear of failure and hunger for success set in the bleak heart of the 1970s.