'The Battered Bastards of Baseball' - Justin Lin Directing Film Based off Documentary

[Walts Ghost]

How great is the story at the heart of the doc The Battered Bastards of Baseball? Only a handful of people have seen the film so far, which documents the history of independent baseball team the Portland Mavericks, which had a Hollywood pedigree and earned a huge fanbase thanks to earnest, accomplished play. The film just premiered at Sundance. There isn’t even a distribution deal set for the doc. Nevertheless, it is already set to be adapted into a dramatic feature, with Fast and the Furious director Justin Lin producing and set to direct.


The Battered Bastards of Baseball explains how, in the early ’70s, actor and lifelong baseball fan Bing Russell formed an independent ball club in Portland, OR. The team, ranked in the A class and acting as the only independent baseball team at the time, played other teams that were all set up as MLB farm teams. And Russell’s team, the Mavericks, dominated with scrappy play and a team full of scruffy guys the majors had deemed unfit to play.

THR reports that Justin Lin liked the story so much he pursued and bought the rights himself, and will produce the dramatic remake as an indie. Now, since Bing Russell is the father of Kurt Russell, who played on the team and appears in the film, can we expect Kurt to play his father in the remake? No word yet, but we’re asking around.

Germain loved the doc, and I did, too — it’s a great tale of a group of motivated outsiders fighting an established system, for love of the game of baseball.

http://www.slashfilm.com/justin-lin-...seball-remake/