Abbi Jacobson and D'Arcy Carden lead the cast for the upcoming one-hour baseball drama.
There's no crying in baseball -- and there certainly isn't for the ladies of A League of Their Own. Amazon has given a series order to a one-hour TV adaptation of the classic 1992 baseball film, the streaming service announced Thursday.
Starring Abbi Jacobson, D'Arcy Carden, Chanté Adams and Gbemisola Ikumelo, the reinterpretation of A League of Their Own promises to evoke the "joyful spirit of Penny Marshall's beloved classic, while widening the lens to tell the story of an entire generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball."
The series, co-created by Jacobson and Will Graham, aims to explore race and sexuality, following the journey of a new crop of characters as they carve their own paths toward the baseball field, both in the league and outside of it.
“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. “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.”
“There’s no crying in baseball, or at Prime Video,” said Vernon Sanders, co-head of Television at Amazon Studios. “Will and Abbi have taken a classic movie, reimagining it for a new generation with new characters and their own fresh, modern vision on a timeless story of big dreams, friendship, love, and, of course, baseball. We’re so excited to partner with Sony to bring this emotional, exciting new series to our Prime Video customers around the world.”
Joining Jacobson, Carden, Adams and Ikumelo in the cast are Kelly McCormack, Roberta Colindrez and Priscilla Delgado, with recurring guest stars Molly Ephraim, Kate Berlant and Melanie Field.
The original film was released in the summer of 1992 and earned more than $132 million at the box office. Directed by Marshall, the film starred Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell -- who made her feature debut -- and Lori Petty.
ET was with the late director and the cast during the making of the movie, where Marshall admitted Davis, who was celebrated for her performance as catcher “Dottie” Hinson, was not her first choice for the role. “I wanted Demi Moore,” Marshall admits in ET's throwback footage. “Demi Moore I liked, but by the time we came around she was pregnant.”
As O'Donnell and Madonna recalled, filming A League of Their Own in the doldrums of summer in Evansville, Indiana, was itself a challenge.
“Hard work. It was 106 degrees, 120 on the field,” O’Donnell explained in 1993. “A lot of people passed out.”
“Yeah, a lot of puking,” Madonna, who played "All the Way" Mae Mordabito in the picture, chimed in.
Marshall revealed she decided to make the film after seeing a documentary about the women’s league, which sprung up in the 1940s while many men were enlisted in World War II. “It’s about friendship,” she said. “It’s about people feeling better about themselves.”
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