If there’s one thing that Disney loves doing and, more importantly, is very good at, it’s taking a seemingly inconsequential sports story and turning it into the most heartfelt movie imaginable. Take The Rookie, for example, which was really just the story of a guy who got to pitch a few innings for the Tampa Bay Rays, but Disney managed to make it like a baseball version of Frequency in terms of emotional charge. Next up for the Mouse is Million Dollar Arm, which tells the story of a struggling baseball agent who “discovered” two Indian cricket players and tried to turn them into baseball pitchers.
The trailer debuted at Grantland today, because Bill Simmons is an executive producer on the film, and Million Dollar Arm looks a lot like your standard “two people from different worlds have a lot to learn from each other” story. It stars Jon Hamm as the agent who developed the idea for the reality show, Million Dollar Arm, which featured eventual Pittsburgh Pirates prospects Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel.
Side Note: The Script’s “Hall of Fame,” while a standard cheesy pop song, might be one of the smartest decisions by a band in the last 10 years. That crap is going to be played across highlight reels, trailers and awards ceremonies for decades to come. Well done, you generic geniuses.