Justin Lin picks up the rights to Sundance baseball documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball

This year at the Sundance Festival, one of the bigger debuts came from a baseball documentary titled The Battered Bastards of Baseball. Directors Chapman Way and Maclain told the story about the only independent baseball team back in 1973 called the Portland Mavericks, created by Bing Russell - the father of actor Kurt Russell, who also played on the team for a short time - as a way to give hope to players who were originally rejected by the Major League teams. Surprisingly, the team accomplished quite a bit of success in its short 5 year life span despite many trials along the way. While they never won the playoffs, they did win their division multiple times.

Former Fast and Furious director Justin Lin saw the popularity of the documentary and bought the rights to adapt it into a feature length narrative film. Instead of directing the adaptation, Justin Lin decided to only act as producer through his production company Perfect Storm. It seems like Justin Lin has tapped director Todd Field (who is, ironically enough, a former player for the Portland Mavericks) to helm the adaptation.

At this point in time there is not a set release date for The Battered Bastards of Baseball. With all of the other projects Justin Lin is attached to, if things do not get rolling soon then it could be quite awhile before we see this particular project come to fruition. Personally, I sincerely hope it is sooner rather than later.

Source: First Showing