Tom Hanks’ New Baseball Movie Sparks Bidding War

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Tom Hanks is teaming up again with director Marielle Heller, who he worked with on A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. The new film will also mark his return to baseball movies, after starring in the beloved 1992 film A League of Their Own. As you might expect, several studios are eager to distribute the movie.

According to Variety, a new film called The Comebacker – described as a touching and funny baseball story – is being discussed with several studios. Sony Pictures is currently the leading contender to produce the movie, likely because Tom Hanks and director Marielle Heller previously collaborated with Sony on A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. It’s expected that Sony’s willingness to invest a significant amount of money will also be a major factor.

Besides reuniting Tom Hanks with director Paul Heller, the new film The Comebackers will also bring him back together with author Dave Eggers, who inspired Hanks’ previous films A Hologram for the King and The Circle. Although those films weren’t his biggest hits, this one seems more likely to appeal to a wider audience. It tells the story of a pitcher whose life changes after being hit by a ball while pitching. The film is based on a short story from Eggers’ collection The Forgetters. However, while the story is originally told through the eyes of a reporter, the movie’s script has Hanks playing a pitching coach instead.

The movie version of the story, written by Heller, also makes another change from the original: the baseball pitcher plays for the New York Mets instead of the San Francisco Giants as he did in Eggers’ version. This is somewhat surprising considering that both Hanks and Heller are from the San Francisco Bay Area, and Hanks – a huge baseball fan – used to sell snacks at Oakland A’s games when he was younger.

While the lead pitcher hasn’t been cast yet, the movie The Comebackers is already attracting a lot of talented actors. Among those being considered are Colman Domingo, who recently received two Academy Award nominations for his roles in Rustin and Sing Sing, and Bad Bunny, fresh off a record-breaking Super Bowl halftime show.

Fans of Tom Hanks have two projects to anticipate. While updates on The Comebackers are still awaited, the sequel to Greyhound, titled Greyhound 2, is almost finished filming in Australia. Although Apple hasn’t announced a release date yet, the film will once again feature Stephen Graham, Rob Morgan, and Elisabeth Shue alongside Hanks.

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2026-03-27 16:17