Amazon has officially ordered Abbi Jacobson's series based on the women's professional baseball league that also inspired the beloved 1992 film.
Trudy RingThe women of A League of Their Own will take the field again in a series on Amazon Prime.
Amazon has officially ordered the series, which has been in the works for several months, Variety reports. Bisexual actress Abbi Jacobson is co-creator, executive producer, and a star of the series about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, leading to hope that the show will be queer-inclusive, unlike the 1992 film, which is nonetheless beloved by queer women. The series description sounds promising.
“Twenty-eight years ago, Penny Marshall told us a story about women playing professional baseball that up until then had been largely overlooked,” Jacobson and Will Graham, her co-creator and fellow executive producer, said in a joint statement. “We grew up obsessed with the film, like everyone else. Three years ago, we approached Sony with the idea of telling a new, still overlooked set of those stories. With the help of an enormously talented team of collaborators, an amazing cast, and the devoted support of Amazon to this project, we feel beyond lucky and excited to get to bring these characters to life. It took grit, fire, authenticity, wild imagination and a crackling sense of humor for these players to achieve their dreams. We’re hoping to bring audiences a story with all of those qualities.”
Additionally, lesbian filmmaker Jamie Babbit (But I’m a Cheerleader) directed and executive produced the pilot, and queer actress Roberta Colindrez of Vida fame is one of the stars. Variety’s story promises that the hour-long series will “explore race and sexuality.”
Besides Jacobson and Colindrez, the show’s cast includes Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Kelly McCormack, and Priscilla Delgado. Molly Ephraim, Kate Berlant, and Melanie Field will be recurring guest stars. It’s produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television in association with Field Trip Productions.
The 1992 film, directed by Penny Marshall, starred Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell, and Tom Hanks. It told a fictionalized story of the real-life league formed during World War II to maintain interest in baseball when many male players had left to serve in the military. Jacobson has said Davis gave her blessing to the series, as did Marshall, who died in 2018.
“There’s no crying in baseball, or at Prime Video,” Vernon Sanders, co-head of television for Amazon Studios, said in a statement, riffing on a famous line uttered by Hanks in the film. “Will and Abbi have taken a classic movie, reimagining it for a new generation with new characters and their own fresh, modern vision on a timeless story of big dreams, friendship, love, and, of course, baseball. We’re so excited to partner with Sony to bring this emotional, exciting new series to our Prime Video customers around the world.”
“Abbi and Will have done a masterful job of reimagining this timeless classic,” added Jeff Frost, president of Sony Pictures Television. “We are very thankful to our partners at Amazon for bringing this incredibly relevant and important story to audiences around the globe.”
Many hope the show will find a way to work in Terry Donahue's personal life which included a decades long relationship with Pat Henschel. That love story was recently told in a Netflix documentary.
No premiere date has been announced.
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