Legendary Pictures will attempt to make a feature film on the life of Baseball Hall of Famer and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson, an endeavor embarked upon by everyone from Spike Lee to Robert Redford to… well, mostly just them, but the fact that they couldn’t make it work speaks to how difficult it’s been to bring to the screen, for whatever reason. In fact, while Robinson’s tale has been told numerous times through TV movies and the like, it’s only produced one feature film, 1950’s The Jackie Robinson Story, and even that had Robinson playing himself (and somehow not all that convincingly). This project at least has the blessing and cooperation of Robinson’s widow Rachel going for it, so it’s already one step ahead of most biopics—and definitely ahead of the film about Jim Hendrix that Legendary producer Thomas Tull previously tried to make. Obviously there’s no word on casting yet, but expect to hear pretty much every black actor from Anthony Mackie to the Old Spice Guy rumored for it any minute now. (Not you, Wesley Snipes.)
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