2011 is turning out to be a banner year for writer/director Tom McCarthy. The helmer recently premiered his latest effort “Win Win” at the Sundance Film Festival to strong reviews which should carry over to his biggest box office success and exposure to date (if it gets more people to watch “The Station Agent” and “The Visitor” then it’s a win-win right? — sorry we had to go there). Anyway, Hollywood is paying attention.
THR reports that McCarthy has been tapped by Walt Disney Pictures to write the inspiration baseball tale, “Million Dollar Arm.” The film will be based on the true story of sports agent J.B. Bernstein who discovered baseball pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel through his reality show “Million Dollar Arm.” Bernstein had the idea for the show when he caught cricket on television and figured the bowlers there might be able to take their talent to the baseball diamonds stateside. Singh and Patel were the finalists of the 2008 run of “Million Dollar Arm” and under Bernstein’s guidance, they were brought to the U.S. where they learned English from action films and rap songs (we weep for the English language) and were taught the rules of the game and eventually, their skills landed them a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
McCarthy isn’t entirely a stranger to the mouse house as he had a credit on Pixar‘s “Up,” but with Disney chair Rich Ross and president of production Sean Bailey catching “Win Win” at Sundance, that likely sealed the deal. Check out a brief doc on Singh and Patel below.