It would be a strange thing to run a Google image search for your own name only to see pages and pages of Jon Hamm’s face. For most of us it would be a step up from the alternative, nonetheless it’s an odd reality for J.B. Bernstein, the massively successful sports agent and subject of Million Dollar Arm, a Jon Hamm vehicle that’s been stewing in Hollywood for some time.
Though boasting a script from Win Win writer/director Thomas McCarthy, the project has been in need of a director, and may have found one in Craig Gillespie, who started with Mr. Woodcock, then moved through Lars And The Real Girl to the Fright Night remake (which I thought was aight). If he signs on he’ll be tackling the story of Bernstein’s successful media circus of auditioning 40,000 Indian cricket players on a reality show and getting two of them MLB pitching contracts in the states. This came after his realization that the two sports had similar ball-throwing mechanics, and amidst his other considerable accomplishments in huckstering the shit out of some major league sports.
He’s been taking it slow with small supporting roles in great films like The Town and Bridesmaids, but when Mad Men comes to an end and John Hamm wants to make the full transition to feature film star, I somehow doubt he’s going to have any trouble doing so. The guy is electric- as adept at comedy as he is drama, and it makes me excited to see him star in his own film here. Moneyball is the buzz-film on any project like this, but I can’t help but picture a similar tone for this fish-out-of-water story that will have Hamm as Bernstein teaching two guys about America and baseball. Hamm should, to go for the obvious phrase here, knock that way out of the park.
