John Lee Hancock is re-teaming with “The Blind Side” producer Gil Netter to direct an untitled movie about former Major League Baseball star Lenny Dykstra.
Details of the project are being kept under wraps.
Dykstra, a key part of the champion 1986 New York Mets, has led a checkered life since retiring from baseball in 1996. He was the subject of multiple investigations into his financial empire, which included a jet charter company and a magazine marketed to professional athletes. He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 and auctioned off his World Series ring.
Dykstra pleaded guilty in 2012 to bankruptcy fraud, concealment of assets and money laundering and was sentenced to six months in prison, 500 hours of community service, and was ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution. Dykstra said in an interview after he was released from prison last summer that Netter had acquired his movie rights — and suggested that either Matt Damon or Mark Wahlberg portray him in the film.
Hancock was the director and screenwriter on “The Blind Side” with Netter producing along with Alcon co-toppers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove. The film, which followed football star Michael Oher through his high school career, was a hit with $309 million in worldwide grosses.
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Netter received a Best Picture Oscar nominations for “The Blind Side” and Ang Li’s “Life of Pi.”
Hancock ventured into the baseball biopic territory more than a decade ago when he directed Disney’s 2002 sports drama “The Rookie” about Jim Morris, the athlete who debuted in MLB at the age of 35.
Hancock also directed Disney’s “Saving Mr. Banks” and his writing credits include “Snow White and the Huntsman.” He’s repped by CAA.
