This project has been percolating for almost a year now, and despite the massive critical and box office failure of “Nine,” that isn’t keeping Hollywood away from A-list leading musical adaptations. As we recently reported, Russell Crowe and Beyonce are being eyed for a potential remake of “A Star Is Born,” and now word is arriving that the long gestating Jake Gyllenhaal and Jim Carrey big screen version of “Damn Yankees” has gotten a director.
Todd Graff has been assigned to the director’s chair and will be rewriting Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel’s original draft of the script. While Graff isn’t exactly the most experienced or successful director (his last effort, “Bandslam,” bombed), his first film “Camp” was a musical and he did spend some time in musical theater himself, receiving a Tony nomination for his turn in “Baby.”
If you’re not familiar with “Damn Yankees,” we don’t blame you. The succcessful Broadway musical, that was also made into 1958 feature film, is about a middle-aged baseball fan who makes a deal with the devil to turn his favorite team’s young star into home run hitting slugger. The film will have a contemporary setting and Carrey is still being eyed for the role of the devil, while Gyllenhaal will don pinstripes as the ballplayer.
The prospect of seeing Carrey and Gyllenhaal singing and dancing doesn’t fill us with glee but somebody out there clearly cares or they wouldn’t keep moving forward with this. Right?