Casey Affleck is returning to the director’s chair and he has picked a true story tailor made for the big screen.
Affleck’s second directing effort after the faux-documentary I’M STILL HERE will follow the fall and rise of major league baseball player Josh Hamilton. For those of you who do not follow professional sports, Hamilton’s story is the kind of story that makes studio executives cream in their pants.
Hamilton was a top prospect coming out of college and was drafted for a record four million dollars. He and his parents were involved in a car accident which left him with back pain. That pain led to drug an alcohol addiction that eventually had him banned from baseball. Throw in addiction to crack, having a child, pawning his wife’s wedding ring, becoming homeless, and then turning it around to become one of the best players in all of baseball and you have yourself a gold mine of a movie.
“I truly think this guy’ story is one of the most inspiring stories I’ve ever read,” producer Basil Iwanyk said. “It’s also tailor-made for a movie: it has the mythic quality of The Natural, the faith-based angle of The Blind Side, and faith is a major part of our story, and the romance of Walk the Line. Casey has totally captured those elements in his take for the movie. It is an extraordinary odyssey that took him from the depths of drug addiction, estrangement from his family, and suspension from baseball to a spectacular rebirth of his life, faith, marriage and major league career.”
Hamilton and his wife will co-produce the film. Affleck will not star in the film.
Having seen Hamilton play, I can say the guy is a superstar and this could be a great movie. I hope the comparisons remain with THE NATURAL moreso than THE BLIND SIDE.
Does a Josh Hamilton movie intrigue you?
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