Having premiered earlier this week at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Chapman and Maclain Way’s documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball is being targeted for development as a narrative feature. The Hollywood Reporter today brings word that four-time The Fast and the Furious franchise helmer Justin Lin has signed on to direct and produce.
The documentary version is officially described by the festival as follows:
Chapman and Maclain Ways energetic telling of one of baseballs great, unheralded stories is as much about independent spirit as it is about the game. When Portland, Oregon, lost its longtime minor-league affiliate, Bing Russellwho briefly played ball professionally before enjoying a successful Hollywood acting careerbought the territory and formed a single-A team to operate outside the confines of major-league baseball. When they took the field in 1973, the Mavericksthe only independent team in Americastarted with two strikes against them. What did Deputy Clem from Bonanza know about baseball? Or Portland, for that matter? The only thing uniting his players, recruited at open tryouts, was that no other team wanted them. Skeptics agreed that it could never work.
But Bing understood a ballplayers dreams, and he understood an audience. His quirky, unkempt castoffs won games, and they won fans, shattering minor-league attendance records. Their spirit was contagious, and during their short reign, the Mavericksa restaurant owner turned manager, left-handed catcher, and blackballed pitcher among thembrought independence back to baseball and embodied what it was all about: the love of the game.
A number of buyers are said to be targeting the documentary version, so check back for information on that film’s wide release in the immediate future.
