Tom Hanks is getting ready to dive back into the world of baseball for an upcoming movie project as the acting icon has jumped on board a brand new film.
According to Variety, Hanks is set to star in a new baseball movie based on the short story “The Comebacker” written by acclaimed author Dave Eggers. Marielle Heller, who has previous experience with Hanks, is slated to direct the film.
The story, written in 2023, is part of his Forgetters Series and focuses on an aging sportswriter and a San Francisco Giants pitcher who is struck in the head and injured by a comebacker, as the title would indicate. You can read it at The Atlantic with a subscription.
The pitcher inspires an aging sportswriter named Lionel who is inspired by the pitcher’s story and the poetic speech that he develops after his injury. Tom Hanks is lined up to play the sportswriter while Bad Bunny and Colman Domingo could also be part of the film.
Of course, this would not be Hanks’ first major baseball role. He portrayed manager Jimmy Dugan in the classic 1992 film A League of Their Own about women’s professional baseball in the 1940s and 1950s.
Baseball has long lended itself to great sports movies throughout the generations and spanning all genres. From true stories like Moneyball and 42 to comedy classics like Major League and ones that pull at the heartstrings like Field of Dreams. While this new project has a great legacy to live up to, the presence of Tom Hanks will definitely give it some legitimacy as soon as it is released.
One interesting note is that the story is projected to shift from the San Francisco Giants to the New York Mets in a change from the original source material. Hanks was a diehard Oakland A’s fan, but he’s also been seen at Mets games cheering them on in recent years. Those could be two good reasons for wanting to center on the Mets in the film. Then again, maybe it’s so the new project doesn’t step on the legacy of another “iconic” baseball film – The Fan.