As both a huge baseball and film fan I love great movies about the National Pastime, but it has been a few years since the last good one. Sure, part of that could stem from the general disillusionment with the game because of the steroid scandals, and part of it could also stem from the fact that Kevin Costner is to old now to play a convincing baseball player (c’mon, he’s made some classics!), but Legendary Pictures is taking steps to create the potentially next great baseball film: a biopic of Jackie Robinson. Robinson’s story — in which the iconic Brooklyn Dodgers player became the first African-American to play in the major leagues in 1947 — will be written and directed by Brian Helgeland (writer of Robin Hood, Mystic River), produced by Thomas Tull, and executive produced by Jon Jashni and Dick Cook, according to Deadline.
There has always been interest in doing a biopic on Robinson, as his is perhaps one of the totally legitimate inspirational stories in sports, but nothing has materialized in recent years. Robinson himself starred in the 1950 biopic The Jackie Robinson Story, which was about as good as you were going to get in a 1950 film that more-or-less underplays the intense racism that Robinson faced in his era — something I imagine this adaptation will not shy away from.
Jackie Robinson’s life story is fertile ground for a phenomenal biopic, so I’m happy to hear that this project is moving forward. What are your thoughts?
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