When you write a book about your father, it helps if he’s had an interesting life. After all, Fred Barnabus: My Life In Cat Dietary Supplements just doesn’t have that hook that makes film producers batter your door down.
Fortunately for Gary W Moore, his father Gene was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers as a 15-year-old baseball prodigy in 1940, before joining the US Navy and ending up guarding German POWs and teaching them the sport. His son has turned the true-life tale into his book – Playing With The Enemy: A Baseball Prodigy, A World At War And A Field Of Broken Dreams.
Gerald R Molen, who has produced several Spielberg movies, has snapped up the rights with cash from his Whitelight entertainment production company. And Moore is keeping it in the family – his own son co-wrote the screenplay adaptation and will play granddad Moore in the movie. Now they need a director. And, given the size of most marquees, a shorter title.