A League Of Their Own is officially coming back, this time as a TV series on Amazon Prime. The Hollywood Reporter said on Thursday that Amazon Prime has ordered a series created by Broad City‘s Abby Jacobson based on the beloved movie about women’s baseball during World War II.
Jacobson and Will Graham created the show, described as a “reinterpretation” of the 1992 movie that starred Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell among others in one of the most celebrated sports movies of all time. According to Hollywood Reporter, the show will expand on the Penny Marshall film to explore how prejudice and equality have impacted women in sports:
“Twenty-eight years ago, Penny Marshall told us a story about women playing professional baseball that up until then had been largely overlooked. We grew up obsessed with the film, like everyone else. Three years ago, we approached Sony with the idea of telling a new, still overlooked set of those stories. With the help of an enormously talented team of collaborators, an amazing cast, and the devoted support of Amazon to this project, we feel beyond lucky and excited to get to bring these characters to life,” Graham and Jacobson said in a joint statement Thursday. “It took grit, fire, authenticity, wild imagination and a crackling sense of humor for these players to achieve their dreams. We’re hoping to bring audiences a story with all of those qualities.”
The film’s reworking for Amazon has been in the works since 2018, and last year word was that D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place) would join the cast as well. She is, indeed, part of the team, featured in art that Amazon shared and cited as part of the cast. The project also apparently got Marshall’s approval before her death in 2018:
Sources say Graham and Jacobson reached out to both Penny Marshall (before her passing in December 2018) and Davis ahead of time to get their blessing for the Amazon take, which will — like the film — explore themes including prejudice and equality, among others. (The original movie included one short but important moment during which a Black woman throws a ball back to Dottie in a scene that briefly illustrated the segregation that existed at the time.)
The experiences people of color had in baseball is largely ignored by the film, save for that moment. So there’s plenty of material to work with there and a much more diverse cast will explore those themes in the new adaptation. THR also reported that surviving members of the AAGPBL — which were featured in the original film — consulted on the series’ creation and will continue as the show is made.
(Via Hollywood Reporter)