For those of you who love baseball-biopics, get ready for 42, a Brian Helgeland-directed project which focuses on the abolishment of segregation in major league baseball based on the relationship between Brooklyn Dodgers general manager, Branch Rickey, and legendary #42, Jackie Robinson. Legendary Pictures has officially annoucned that Harrison Ford will take on the role of Rickey, according to Coming Soon.
Helgeland, who collaborated with Robinson’s widow, Rachel Robinson, penned the script which is backed by Warner Bros. Growing up in a baseball-heavy household, I was always exposed to the games, but never knew much about the ground-breaking history that was made during the Rickey-Robinson era of 1947. To help shed some light on what the history books report, Deadline reveals that “Rickey had to search for the right player and qualities that went beyond hitting, fielding, speed and a throwing arm. The first player had to be able to withstand the hostilities from bigots and segregationists not only in the stands, but in the dugouts as well. He found that player in Robinson, a star for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues who had the iron will to take the abuse without losing his composure.”
Right now, Ford is currently rumored to be attached to the sci-fi film, Ender’s Game, due out in 2013 with last year’s Oscar darling, Hailee Steinfeld and Hugo star Asa Butterfield. It’s easy to say that the role is Ford’s for the taking, especially since Robert Redford was rumored to have passed on the part after a short attachment to the project some ten years ago.
Also, Coming Soon names Chadwick Boseman as the film’s Robinson, who you may recognize from 2008’s The Express and NBC’s short-lived mini-series Persons Unknown last year.
Are you interested in seeing this portrayal of sports history on the big screen? Don’t you think Ford is due for an Oscar already after his one meager nomination for Witness back in 1986? Could a story like this finally be his homerun?
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