HOOSIERS and RUDY Screenwriter Angelo Pizzo to Script New Sports Movie About the 1911 Indianapolis 500

Hoosiers and Rudy screenwriter Angelo Pizzo has signed on to write another movie that he is hoping will complete his trifecta of classic sports films. This story will follow the story of automotive entrepreneur Carl Graham Fisher and the inaugural 1911 running of the Indianapolis 500. Justin Escue will direct the pic.

Carl Graham Fisher, “the protagonist of the as-yet-untitled feature, is an enigmatic, and until now mostly forgotten, true American anti-hero, responsible for not only the greatest spectacle in racing, but the building and creation of Miami Beach, Montauk Island, America’s first highways and byways, and so much more. He spurred the construction of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway—where the Indy 500 takes place—as a testing facility for the automotive industry. He was also a pioneer in highway construction, who spearheaded the development of the the United States’ first transcontinental road for automobiles, known as the Lincoln Highway, among other critical means of travel. While Fisher was worth an estimated $100M by 1926, he lost it all in the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression that followed. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1971.”

Deadline reports that famed track architect Paxton Waters is building a scale version of the track in Indianapolis for the film, as it was in 1911. The pic is fully funded, and the producers will be looking to cast the film in the coming weeks.

I love a good sports movie, and it’s clear that Pizzo knows how to write a good one. I look forward to checking it out.