Damn Yankees remake will be Jerry Maguire with songs and steroids

If you haven’t heard, the director behind BANDSLAM and writer of BEAUTICIAN AND THE BEAST, Todd Graff is helming a remake of the baseball musical DAMN YANKEES.

Now throw in Jim Carrey & Jake Gyllenhaal then top it off with the pair possibly singing about steroids and you definitely have an “interesting” project.

It’s been awhile since we’ve had any news on the remake, now Graff is talking about his own vision for the film. Let’s start with how the film applies in today’s world:

“If a character like Joe Hardy — who’s the character in ‘Damn Yankees’ — sprung out of nowhere and was hitting 70 home runs in a season, who would not think immediately ‘steroids’? So [steroids] is not even a side character for us; it’s our main character. No one is going to think, ‘Oh, it’s because he made a deal with the devil!’ They’d think, ‘He’s juicing!’

Graff claims he knows his shit though, “DAMN YANKEES will be a big, movie-star movie. I said, ‘Listen, there may be writer/directors out there who know more about musicals … there may be writer/directors out there who know more about baseball, but I guarantee you, there is no writer/director out there that knows more about musicals and more about baseball and hates the Yankees as much as I do.'”

“It should feel like ‘Jerry Maguire’ with songs. It should really feel like the real world of a major sports franchise and what would happen with this fantastical goofy, funny idea of a baseball fanatic who sold his soul to Jim Carrey as the devil in order to be turned into a 20-year-old Joe Mauer,” said Graff on his pitch for the film.

Here are some other details that you may or may not agree with:

– The film will be dropping some of the songs from the original, however, “Whatever Lola Wants” is staying in. Also five or six new songs will be added.

– Obviously, the Washington Senators aren’t around anymore so what team will replace them? The best candidate they say is the Cubs.

– Bob Fosse’s famed choreography is out. Graff says they’re going for, “more of a muscular, athletic, youthful, sexy movie. We’re going to be less brittle, less razzle-dazzly and aim to knock your socks off with the athleticism.”

– Graff is currently looking for his Lola.