Robert Redford will Star in Brian Helgeland's Jackie Robinson Biopic

Robert Redford is set to star in a new biopic on legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson, and no he won't be playing Robinson, he will be taking on the role of Branch Rickey who was known for breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

The film is being written and directed by Brian Helgeland worked on films such as L.A. Confidential and Mystic River. According to the LA Times, "Redford's film will look less at the specifics of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier and more at the complex relationship between Rickey, who scholars believed integrated baseball for reasons of both idealism and economics, and Robinson, the shortstop who faced tremendous discrimination when he signed with the Dodgers system in 1945." Redford had this to say in a statement,

No one really knows the Rickey part, the political maneuvers and the partnership they had to share. It's the story underneath the story you thought you knew.

Rickey is also the subject of a new biography by Jimmy Breslin, and discusses the "former player who also ushered in other innovations, including the modern farm system and the use of equipment such as the batting helmet."

As you know Redford is no stranger to Baseball movies, he made The Natural which in my opinion is one of the greatest baseball movies ever made. This Jackie Robinson movie should turn out to be a great historical baseball drama. What do you all think?

 

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