Players Who Deserve Their Own Biopics

[Phantom Dreamer]

A thread to discuss players past or present who deserve to have a biopic produced...
Perhaps Ted Williams or Roberto Clemente could be candidates. Has there ever been a decent baseball biopic?

[Phantom Dreamer]

Sounds like Ernie Banks wanted a movie or perhaps a documentary made about him.
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Ma...5/Ernie-Banks/

[Cowtipper]

Barry Bonds.

Actually John Rocker might be a good story.

[Mingo]

Great topic! I'd love to see really good, big-budget and factual movies made about the following players:

Jimmie Foxx (with the truth about the beaning he took in Canada and how it affected his career, health and alcohol use. It's time his legacy was reinstated in our consciousness)
Satchel Paige. Imagine what Spielberg could do with Leroy's life story!
Ty Cobb - but not based on Al Stump's fictional nonsense. The truth, warts, records and all...and with better baseball action (and much more of it) and a focus on his playing career, not his cranky-old-man days.
Babe Ruth (with someone playing him as a young player with the LEAN body he actually had, rather than the damaging image John Goodman left in the public's mind that Ruth left St. Mary's weighing well over 300 pounds).
Oscar Charleston (what a story that would be!)
Napoleon Lajoie - another forgotten superstar
Tris Speaker - ditto
Ted Williams - what a story. Just the war footage alone would pack theaters
Joe Dimaggio - from San Francisco to Mr. Coffee, warts and all.
Walter Johnson - with somebody athletic enough to do justice to his size, strength, windup, fastball speed AND his hitting ability.

[Phantom Dreamer]

Unfortunately, when you are talking about "warts and all" that's when estates get involved and they tend to become litigious and we end up with sugar coated "afterschool" specials like 42 and Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story.

[Mingo]

Unfortunately, when you are talking about "warts and all" that's when estates get involved and they tend to become litigious and we end up with sugar coated "afterschool" specials like 42 and Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story.

I heard something like this happened with Joe Jackson's estate concerning how he would be portrayed in a movie. Can't remember which one. I wonder how many other projects have been shot down because an heir didn't like how grandpa would be portrayed? If a film was made and the overall impression of a superstar like Foxx was favorable BUT it shows a few warts, like his alcoholism or chronic mishandling of his money, you'd think his surviving family would still want it made anyway to keep his legacy and name alive. After all, we're all just human with strengths and weaknesses.

You bring up a great question - I wonder if anyone from Cobb's family (or the family of any other pro athlete) ever sue or threaten litigation over a book or movie that portrayed the person unfavorably? The Babe certainly showed some of Ruth's boozing and womanizing. I wonder how much of a vote the estate or family gets? Or if they're even consulted?

[Phantom Dreamer]

What player's life is worth a studio to put $$$ behind to produce to get the movie going public to spend $$$ at the box office? This is about business as much if not more so than about art.

[Mingo]

What player's life is worth a studio to put $$$ behind to produce to get the movie going public to spend $$$ at the box office? This is about business as much if not more so than about art.

Agree 100%. This is why there are dozens of crappy movies about zombies and vampires but very few good sports films ever get made.

[Phantom Dreamer]

Munenori Kawasaki.

[ol' aches and pains]

A thread to discuss players past or present who deserve to have a biopic produced...
Perhaps Ted Williams or Roberto Clemente could be candidates. Has there ever been a decent baseball biopic?

I've been calling for a Ted Williams biopic for years. Clemente would be good, too.

Unfortunately, when you are talking about "warts and all" that's when estates get involved and they tend to become litigious and we end up with sugar coated "afterschool" specials like 42 and Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story.

42 wasn't great, but it wasn't bad, IMO. I was prepared for it to be a lot worse.

[Dude Paskert]

Love the mention of Clemente...he was not a "sports hero", he was a true hero who died trying to bring aid to earthquake victims. Roberto flew on the shipment of relief supplies because he had heard that earlier loads had fallen into the hands of criminals who sold them, and he wanted to use his influence to prevent that from happening again.

I don't know if his name would bring crowds in anymore, but Bob Feller had a remarkable life...a star while still in high school, a veteran who saw real combat shooting down kamikazes, unfortunate husband to a woman who became addicted to painkillers, plus a man who was gifted with spectacular raw athleticism. Bob started barnstorming heavily and selling insurance (!) to raise money to cover the costs of his wife's addiction and their subsequent divorce. Feller spoke of having to package up small amounts of narcotics and hiding them in various spots of his house, calling her every so often from the road to tell her where the next package was so she could satisfy her cravings without ODing...can you imagine? The poor woman was not a natural born junkie, but became addicted after a botched medical procedure.
Bob also lost his thunderous fastball to a back injury, but was able to remain a valuable pitcher by concentrating on breaking stuff. You can actually see the injury in his stats, happened during the '47 season and he looks like a different pitcher starting with the '48 numbers.

[ol' aches and pains]

Good call on Feller, Dude. He always downplayed his WWII service, saying "I'm not a hero, just a survivor. The heroes didn't come back".

[Dude Paskert]

Good call on Feller, Dude. He always downplayed his WWII service, saying "I'm not a hero, just a survivor. The heroes didn't come back".

Wow, great quote!
Feller was also painfully blunt (to the point of his second wife asking her doctor if it was possible to die of embarrassment), and characters like that can be very interesting to depict in film. I'm thinking in particular of "Talk Radio", about a Howard Stern-esque character who was killed for refusing to do anything but speak his mind on the air...he was sort of based on a real talk show host who was killed by a listener.

[Phantom Dreamer]

Nothing against him, but if Steve PreFontaine is worthy of two separate biopics, certainly many baseball players are worthy of one. Hell, the Apple dude has yet another biopic out.

[Mingo]

Nothing against him, but if Steve PreFontaine is worthy of two separate biopics, certainly many baseball players are worthy of one. Hell, the Apple dude has yet another biopic out.

Pretty much anyone can be made to look like a runner with a porno stache. And all you have to do to play Jobs is rant and rave and act like an egomaniac. To accurately play a ballplayer, the actors have to have some real baseball chops and those are woefully missing in Hollywood. If they actually do make a real biopic of Cobb's life with a focus on his playing career, they need to go with an actual ballplayer and give him the acting lessons to pull it off. I'd much rather see adequate acting and great baseball in a film than hammy acting with horrible, Goodmanesque baseball "skill".

If they ever do that "real" Cobb movie, I vote for a lefty southerner who throws right, bats left and looks like Cobb. Here is my vote, right here:

490px-Ty_Cobb_LC-DIG-ggbain-08006_crop (1).jpg