July 22, 2004

TCA, Take 1

Give Ron Semiao credit. ESPN's Original Entertainment chief is honest enough to admit he's on a learning curve. The upshot: plans for a movie about the famous ice bowl championship game between the Packers and the Cowboys have been shifted; the film will concentrate on Vince Lombardi instead of the game itself. It's also been pushed back one year and is slated to run Dec '05. "We had 2 writers take a crack at it and it just didn't work," he says. So ESPN acquired rights to David Maraniss' book on Lombardi, "When Pride Still Mattered," and the film will likely be based on that excellent tome, although it's still early in the script process. No decisions on who will play the legendary Lombardi. - - Interesting choice by Semiao to let Peter Bogdanovich direct "Hustle" (about Pete Rose, premieres Sept 25) and cast Barry Pepper as NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt in "3" (Dec 11). Bogdanovich has only been to 2 baseball games-one was in the '60s, Sandy Koufax pitched and Cary Grant drove him there in his limo, bought him hot dogs and sang British songs to him. "How could I top that?" he asks. Bogdanovich says Hustle will be "warts and all...a Shakespearian tragedy." Pepper was not a racing fan before he worked on the film. He learned fast; he attended a racing school before shooting-by day 2 he was driving a car at 170 mph. — Semiao says EOE would like its films to expand eventually to fictional stories (thus far, all have depicted real coaches or athletes). One possible project, a film based on John Grisham's novel "Bleachers," is out since a movie studio has obtained rights to it. — ESPN plans to offer a DVD version of "3" and "Hustle" with "plenty of extras" from the archives of ESPN; the Earnhardt DVD might come out around the holidays, Semiao says. — Great story from Dick Vitale, reminiscing on his years at ESPN. "20 years ago, I had a guy who picked me up at the airport and worked in the mailroom-he once moaned 'I graduated from college and here I am driving you around and working in the mailroom. Will I ever make it?' I knew he was a winner." That driver is ESPN pres George Bodenheimer.