NEWSLETTER
Soon after the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series, calls for a movie chronicling the events blew up, and not just from Cubs fans.
Fortunately, former Cubs catcher David Ross penned a book called “Teammate: My Journey in Baseball and a World Series for the Ages“, and that provided the perfect framing for the story (after all, there needs to be an angle/protagonist, right?).
But even though we learned relatively early on that Ross’ book was headed towards full on movie treatment, we really haven’t heard much since.
Now we have. And it’s fun as heck.
According to Deadline, the Chicago Cubs World Series movie “Teammate” is indeed moving forward, as Australian director Shane Abbess, who’s apparently a huge baseball fan, has signed on to direct. It’s getting real.
Abbess has directed three features so far, Gabriel (2007), Infini (2015), and The Osiris Child (2016). And while the first two weren’t exactly critically acclaimed, the latter has been well-received so far (he was also just recently the executive producer of an awesome Christmas horror flick called Better Watch Out … and suddenly I’m all the way on board). The writers, John Corcoran and Ram Getz, are mostly unknowns (at least, as of now).
So, no, Teammate isn’t getting the Moneyball one-two punch of writer Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The Social Network, The West Wing) and director Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher, Capote), but it should be in good hands nonetheless.
But that’s not the only good news, Cubs and movie fans!
Because if the rumors are true, we may get to see the one and only BILL FREAKIN’ MURRAY play Cubs manager Joe Maddon. Which, actually, yeah, I can see that working out:
On top of being roughly the right age/build/look, I get the sense that Murray is one of just a few who could really capture Joe Maddon’s uniqueness. Then again, this leaves the casting problem of who plays Bill Murray in the movie?
To be sure, the rumors merely suggest that Murray is in negotiations/talks to play the Cubs manager, so don’t get too excited just yet. But I will say that the addition of a legit actor/celebrity/talent like Murray could certainly elevate this film both by his expectedly solid performance (of course), but also in terms of budget/release/marketing.
Hopefully, then, he joins and this movie (currently without a release date) gets rolling.
Oh, and all of this assumes Murray can fight off Bradley Whitford for the Joe Maddon role:
Apparently Bradley Whitford caught wind of the planned Cubs movie a long time ago, and started prepping for his role as Joe Maddon. pic.twitter.com/zY4v4GlIkc
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) March 21, 2017
