adaptations

Justin Lin to Adapt Documentary About Ragtag Baseball Team

Todd Field, director and former batboy.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Justin Lin has acquired the remake rights to the documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball, which premiered at Sundance earlier this week. The doc tells the story of actor Bing Russell in 1973 creating the Portland Mavericks, a professional baseball team that was not affiliated with any major-league organization. The result was a real motley crew of a team. (EW has a story about how crazy it was.) It included Bing’s son, Kurt Russell (yes, that Kurt Russell), who played and served as VP. Todd Field (In the Bedroom, Little Children) is in talks to write and direct, which is especially fun because Field was the team’s batboy. When the story is rewritten to be about how the batboy — after a fluke arm injury — becomes the star pitcher and leads the ragtag group unexpectedly to the World Series – Rookie of the Year style, we’ll know why.

J. Lin to Adapt Doc About Ragtag Baseball Team