Get out your bat and mitt, but leave the baseball autograph by Babe Ruth at home this time around. The Sandlot is headed to television.
David Mikey Evans, who directed the 1993 film about a kid who forms a friendship with a group of local boys who play baseball at a nearby sandlot, revealed that he’s sold a script for a TV show based on the film. The series will be set in 1984, and will feature the original cast of the film reprising their original roles as adults.
Evans announced the project during an appearance on The Rain Delay podcast (and later reported by MLB.com), and indicated that he expects the series to get a two-season order. Evans also indicated that the series is headed to a streaming service as opposed to a major network, but offered no indication of which service or what sort of production timeline there is for the show.
The original film cast Thomas Guiry as Scottie Smalls, who moves to the San Fernando Valley with his mother and stepfather in 1962, and ends up becoming friends with a group of kids whose love for baseball has them practicing nearly every day at a makeshift field in a sandlot. When Scottie borrows his stepfather’s prized baseball signed by Babe Ruth, only to lose it in a yard guarded by a terrifying dog, the group must figure out a way to get the ball back before Scottie’s stepfather realizes it’s missing.
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Evans co-wrote, directed, and narrated the film, which was based on his own childhood experiences. The supporting cast for the film included Mike Vitar, Karen Allen, Denis Leary, and James Earl Jones.
The Sandlot was a modest success at the box office, earning $33 million domestically and generally positive reviews, but it went on to become a cult hit in the home entertainment market. The film spawned two direct-to-video sequels: 2005’s The Sandlot 2 and 2007’s The Sandlot: Heading Home. Both films featured entirely new characters.
A prequel film for The Sandlot was also rumored in recent years, but there’s been no definitive confirmation or updates on that project since the initial rumor.
