EXCLUSIVE: Josh Hamilton’s rise from the depths of an addiction to crack to become the American League’s most feared slugger is dramatic enough to have been scripted. Sure enough, Hamilton has entrusted his rights to producer Basil Iwanyk and Thunder Road Pictures to be shopped for a feature that will be written and directed by Casey Affleck. Iwanyk has partnered with Kevin Walsh and The Walsh Company on the film, which he and Affleck will pitch to the town shortly.
The best way to describe Hamilton’s journey is to liken him to Roy Hobbs of The Natural, because Hamilton fits that description. The difference: Hamilton’s fall from grace was self-inflicted. A bonafide prodigy who was throwing a 96 mph fast ball by age 15, Hamilton was the first player chosen in the 1999 Major League Baseball draft, signing with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for a record $4 million. His parents stuck close to their son, until the three were broadsided by another car. His mother was badly hurt and his parents went home to North Carolina. That left Hamilton, who hurt his back in the accident, on his own for the first time in his life. He didn’t handle it well. Beer led to the first line of cocaine, and by the time he came off the disabled list and tore his quadriceps muscle to end his season, he was hopelessly hooked. The following season, he got to the point he hid coke in his uniform during minor league games and when the team found out and sent him to the Betty Ford clinic to straighten out, he went home. There, he met his future wife Katie, but his problems got worse and he failed drug tests and got suspended multiple times, until he was finally kicked out of baseball altogether.
He married Katie, but blew his bonus money on crack and even pawned his wife’s wedding ring. She threw him out and wouldn’t let him get near their newborn daughter. His parents had had enough by this time, too. With no place to go, he ended up with his grandmother, who caught him smoking crack and forced him to try to straighten himself out. Sent to Florida for another rehab, he walked into a local training facility and got a job cleaning toilets and caring for the field. He asked if he could throw a few pitches one day, and shocked bystanders by dialing up a 95 mph fastball.
It made him face his fall, from top pick and married father to a homeless cleaner of toilets, and the fact that he’d squandered his natural gifts. He bought into recovery, quit drugs, reconciled with a wife who hadn’t quit on him, and embraced religion. Eventually, he petitioned baseball’s commissioner for one more chance, and was granted a tryout. Hamilton was selected in the 2006 Rule 5 Draft by the Chicago Cubs, who immediately traded him to the Cincinnati Reds. After the 2007 season, he was traded to the Rangers. Hamilton has become a power hitting machine, crushing 35 home runs in the 2008 Home Run Derby, an unprecedented display of power with a swing that looked effortless. This season, Hamilton is putting up Triple Crown-caliber numbers this season. He has slipped occasionally with alcohol, but has taken a long road back to redemption by reclaiming his outsized talent and regained the trust of his family. If he continues to put up monster numbers, he’ll realize potential that eluded similarly talented jocks like Dwight Gooden and Daryl Strawberry, who weren’t able to overcome their demons until too late.
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Thunder Road’s Kent Kubena will executive produce. Hamilton and his wife Katie will co-produce along with Hamilton’s business manager Steve Reed.
“I truly think this guy’ story is one of the most inspiring stories I’ve ever read,” Iwanyk said. “It’s also tailor-made for a movie: it has the mythic quality of The Natural, the faith-based angle of The Blind Side, and faith is a major part of our story, and the romance of Walk the Line. Casey has totally captured those elements in his take for the movie. It is an extraordinary odyssey that took him from the depths of drug addiction, estrangement from his family, and suspension from baseball to a spectacular rebirth of his life, faith, marriage and major league career.”
Iwanyk’s based at Warner Bros (where he’s shooting the Jeff Bridges-starrer The Seventh Son) and that studio will get first shot before he and Affleck take it out to the town. Affleck, who directed the parody documentary I’m Still Here with his brother in law Joaquin Phoenix, won’t star in this film. The WME-repped Affleck just wrapped Out of the Furnace opposite Christian Bale and starts Ain’t Them Bodies Saints with Rooney Mara in July.
No doubt it is a great story, but it is hardly a complete one. Hamilton is 31 and is coming up on his first big free agent year and contract. Plus, he had a “setback” this past offseason.
I am sure it will be a great story, but I wonder if they might end up missing a compelling aspect of it by making a film now.
I agree…..too early.
Imagine an OJ movie at the height of his football fame.
good one…i agree, wait. it doesn’t feel right.
It takes awhile to write a book and then set it into movie mode by the time WS and free agent year rolls around it could just mean an edit is required!
I know by your post that you have never written a book, screen play AND/OR don’t know anything about making a movie from a book
Unless it’s a 3 picture deal. This could be parts 1 and 2 if they did it right…
2 words: sequel
I agree, No One. He had a slip up in this past offseason, so it seems pretty clear that his addictions still take over once in a while. Add to that his upcoming free agency and whatever the future of that contract with a new team holds, plus his life after retirement (whenever that may be), and you have a very incomplete life story thus far.
That is true but when getting better you can expect slip ups. Plus you have to take in to consideration he is only human like the rest of us he isn’t perfect no one is but he was able to get past it and that’s why they should make the movie
As long as he can remain clean and sober and focus on his career and take good care of his family, then he will have a long life and a promising career, but he needs to stay FOCUSED!!! This coming from an Angels fan!
I agree with No One & Em. But if they go ahead with the film, I think Will Ferrell would be the perfect choice to play Hamilton!
I have thought all a long that Josh and Will looked a lot alike. I also think the movie is premature. Wait and see. Josh is capable of great things and being a nature leader. Lets only hope he leads in the right direction and stays where he is loved and protected with the TEXAS RANGERS.
This will be a great movie. It’s not about his future it’s about his past so it doesn’t
Matter what happens with his contract or the rest of his career. With a good actor staring as Hamilton this movie will be amazing and I’m sure the only people who think otherwise are just people that are not ranger fans. I am and I can’t wait for it
It’s not about his future? This guy is barely holding on to sobriety, and could end up face down in a gutter in 10 years. Or even next month if he’s not careful.
Sure, this could be a great movie, but it could just as easily be a total nightmare. In my opinion it’s dangerous for him to have this movie made at this time in his life.
Well said sir….this coming from a Ranger fan.
Nope… Billy Currington should play the role. Twins separated at birth
break out the HGH, he’s going to have to put on one hell of an acting job to play a guy that’s got not only six inches on you, but also 40 lbs of muscle. On top of that you’ll have to look like you can play the game, hello fantasy camp, otherwise then that good choice.
thanks Hollywood
This will do about $12 overseas, and that only because there’s always someone who gets confused and buys a ticket for the wrong film.
Nonsense baseball is more than just the American pastime. They play baseball in Japan and Cuba so those two markets are going to be big. For all the other countries we will change it to soccer in post-production we will digitally insert a soccer field in place of the baseball field and soccer players in place of baseball players.
Baseball, yes, but Josh Hamilton? And how much revenue does Cuba remit to Hollywood? It’s not like soccer-themed movies are such big b.o. anyway. No, what the world needs is a film about cricket!
So “Invictus” did $12 here in the US? People go to the movies for stories, not sports.
If he returns to his addictions, they can re-tool “A Star is Born” for baseball. Are there any oceans in Texas for the character to walk into?
Well, we have a big lake they call the Gulf of Mexico. Will that work for ya’?
And you should check out this cool thing while you’re online – google “maps” – before you ask your next question.
Yes, I agree Billy Currington should play the role!
Go Rangers…it would only make sense to go forward with the movie if the Rangers win the World Series this year.
And now they are going to make a feel good movie about his life. I think it’s pretty disgusting.
Given the type of movies that are considered “blockbusters” in this day & time, I would absolutely LOVE to see Josh’s story on the big screen. Something that gives hope to those dealing with addition….showing how faith in the Lord will turn your life around….that there’s always hope, and promise. He is blessed with awesome talent, and I hope and pray he continues to thrive and succeed. With or without baseball.
You are right, Lauri. Hamilton has had numerous struggles. What I like about him most of all, he can ADMIT what he has done and has OWNED everything. Faith, hope, and love is what he has on his side. A loving God and family.
Very compelling story – modern day greek tragedy. His journey to this point could make a great movie.
Could be too early to make the movie, but then again the Blind Side was made before Big Mike even played in the NFL.
Yeah, but, um, “The Blind Side” was more about Big Mike’s white, suburban, wealthy, GOP, come-to-Jesus benefactors and less so about Big Mike. It’s funny, actually, that the real star of a bio-pic can get shoved out of the way in service of a more “friendly” Hollywood spin on his life, readily packaged and digestible for flyover state masses.
Perfect story, color by numbers, it’ll do gangbusters. No, it
is not too soon even if he’s 31. Pity about the religion thing, but addicts often have to replace one senseless thing with an even more senseless thing; AA is, after all, a religious cult. But embracing it is the only way to get your cred back in this blessed nation where the right to fundamentalism no matter how pernicious is enshrined in the Constitution. Apparently.
Cole Hauser should play Hamilton. They look identical.
Indeed .
Christian Bale is one of the few can take off and put on the weight required to tell this story accurately. Assuming they are going to show his lowest moments of addiction you need him to be really thin or go with CGI which is always distracting. Obviously, Bale’s baseball skills may be zero, but you need to show the valleys and peaks to make this film work.
But as someone who is married to an addict, I can say based on his current behavior Hamilton could re-lapse at any minute. And having a film made about his life, may not help his current sobriety. Dangerous subject matter.
Is it just me or does he look exactly like Blake Griffin in a baseball uniform?
i agree, blake griffin should play the part
Yeah, he deserves to make 20 million plus, and I’m sure he will get it with his next contract, plus you never know, if he goes into his 40s he could be one of the top home run hitters of all time
I agree with you. The story is about Josh’s past and what he has overcome and how he did it. If the movie is true to the book, it will inspire millions. I give the book to everyone I think might read it.
I think it will be a great film, and not just because I am a Texas fan. I also believe Armie Hammer (Social Network, Mirror Mirror) needs to play him. They look alike in my opinion, and Armie is pretty tall as well.