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'The Blind Side' Director Heads to Baseball for Lenny Dykstra Biopic

by Ethan Anderton
June 5, 2014
Source: Variety

Director John Lee Hancock got plenty of acclaim for his sappy, football driven family drama The Blind Side, but that wasn't the first time he ventured into the world of sports. All the way back in 2002, Hancock directed Disney's 2002 baseball drama The Rookie. Now he's returning to baseball as Variety reports the director will reteam with The Blind Side producer Gil Netter for a film about former Major League Baseball player Lenny Dykstra. The focus of the biopic other than Dykstra himself hasn't been revealed, but the player has led a life worthy of a drama, especially in the events following his career on the field. Read on!

Dykstra played for the New York Mets, winning a championship with the team in 1986, playing the game until his retirement in 1996. However, it's his life after playing the game where things seem to get complicated. With baseball behind him, Dykstra built a financial empire that included a jet charter company and a magazine that was geared towards professional athletes. However, some investigations began that forced him to file for bankruptcy in 2009, and he even had to auction off his World Series ring. But the player ended up pleading guilty to bankruptcy fraud, concealment of assets and money laundering, resulting in a sentence of six months in prison, 500 hours of community service, and $200,000 in restitution.

Once Dykstra was released from prision, he revealed that Netter had picked up the movie rights to his life, so this film has been in the works for a couple years now. The player has even offered up suggestions of who should play him on the big screen, like Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg. That's a tall order, but with a director like Hancock on board, it's not out of the realm of possibility.  However, it sounds like a script still needs to be written, so it might be awhile before we hear more about this project again. Hopefully this won't be as melodramatic as The Blind Side, a film that was a little too on the nose for my liking. Thoughts?

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