From surviving for six months on the islands without pay and taking on a culture in which black magic was a norm, to the iconic scene of him sitting atop one of the famous sand dunes of Sigatoka as the Fijians players ran up its steep slopes, Ryan’s story is gripping from the start.

And then there was the deadly storm that devastated the country before the Hong Kong Sevens and which the players used as inspiration on their way to the Olympic gold medal.

Whoever is going to play Ryan needs to have deep acting skills that capture the nuances of the Cambridge-educated, ginger-haired Englishman.

Ryan is naturally tight-lipped about the production but it doesn’t stop us from suggesting actors to play him. Of course, our list is narrowed down to only red-haired actors. IMDB lists several dozen actors it considers ginger-haired but many of them have greyed and some are more blond than red.

This is our list of five actors who could possibly play Ben Ryan in a Hollywood movie.

1. DAMIAN LEWIS

Englishman Damian Lewis is only eight months older than Ryan and would no doubt nail the part, given his stellar career playing a range of characters. He played Richard D Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers but gained fame for his role as rescued POW Nicholas Brody in the award-winning Homeland, for which he won an Emmy

He is now shooting Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, playing actor Steve McQueen in a movie set towards the end of the golden age of cinema in 1969.

Lewis certainly has the acting chops to play Ben Ryan, though audiences may perceive him as too militarylike to portray a coach who breaks all the rules to ensure his team play to their strengths.

2. TOM GOODMAN-HILL

A possible wild-card actor to play Ryan is Tom Goodman-Hill, an Englishman who is three years older than the coach and is from London. Although his resume cannot compare to that of Lewis’, Goodman-Hill has had solid supporting roles in the past and appeared in highly rated productions such as The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Everest and sci-fi series Humans.

Like Ryan, he used to be a teacher, before turning to acting and would not look out of place giving pep talks to Fijians in the middle of a cow patch.

3. RUPERT GRINT

First off, Grint’s head is roundish while Ryan’s is more squarish but more importantly, is this most famous of Hollywood ginger-heads going to be forever known as Harry Potter’s sidekick Ron Weasley? While Daniel Radcliffe has retired his wand and invisibility cloak and has successfully moved on from wizardry, Grint is struggling shake of the Weasley syndrome.

But this could be his coming out. No one gave Christian Bale a hope of playing Bruce Wayne and now he is one of the greatest Batman’s of all time. Bryan Cranston made Malcolm in the Middle obsolete with his performances in Breaking Bad. This is Grint’s chance to leave the Weasley persona behind for good and make the Ben Ryan part his own. As long as he doesn’t suddenly cry “Haarrriieeeeeee!” upon seeing black magic.

To be fair to Grint, he has had some great roles after Hogwarts, including the TV series based on the movie Snatch and the latest project of The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan.

4. CHRIS OWEN

If anyone was to come up with a list of actors to portray Ben Ryan in a movie, no one would ever, ever consider Chris Owen, the US actor who first made his name in the 1999 teen flick American Pie. But, he is a redhead and he is relatively young and by having him in the list, it gives Rupert Grint more of a chance.

However, he has got a few things going for him. As mentioned, he’s got ginger hair and his head is more squarish like Ryan’s. Apart from that, this is the kind of role in which he could make his name … the kind of actor Tarantino takes out of the abyss, as he did with John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, and puts him back in the spotlight. He’d have to change his accent, of course.

It has to be said, though, a teenaged Chris Owen could easily pass off as a younger brother to Ryan.

5. DOMHNALL GLEESON

Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson is our absolute favourite and number one choice to play Ben Ryan in a movie. Not only is he one of the best actors in the business, his resemblance to Ryan is uncanny. Just fit on a pair of glasses and the Fijian players would not know the difference.

Gleeson, son of actor Brendan Gleeson, has had some powerful roles in his career including that of sympathetic Captain Andrew Henry in The Revenant, for which lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio won the best actor Oscar.

Gleeson actually co-starred alongside Grint as Ron’s older brother Bill in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part II. So, possibly Grint to play a young Ryan and Gleeson an adult Ryan, should the story take that route. But one of the most compelling reasons Gleeson should be the producer’s No. 1 target? … he is in all three post-George Lucas Star Wars movies.

6. BEN RYAN

Yes, we said five but it is not beyond Hollywood to cast a character as himself. Dee Snider, lead singer of US heavy metal band Twisted Sister, played himself in the surprisingly good Warning: Parental Advisory in 2002, based on a true story about how he joined country singer John Denver and rock legend Frank Zappa in their battle against the US government over censorship in music.

Dee Snider did a fine job as Dee Snider. After all, he knew every minute detail of the story. A movie with Ryan as himself and the Fijian players as themselves would add to the sincerity and drama of the story and would be as close to the real thing as you can get. Just a thought.