“King Richard” director Reinaldo Marcus Green wants to stay in the biopic business. Deadline reports that Green’s next project will see him write, direct, and produce a film about beloved Baseball Hall Of Famer Roberto Clemente. It’ll be his third biopic in a row, after the aforementioned “King Richard” and 2024’s “Bob Marley: One Love.”
For those unfamiliar with Clemente, the native Puerto Rican is one of baseball’s most legendary stars: a 15x All-Star, 2x World Series champ, 1966 NL MVP, and 1971 World Series MVP, and one of only 33 players to record 3,000 hits in his 18-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. And Clemente would have surpassed 3000 hits had he not tragically passed away in a plane crash on New Year Eve 1972, at age 38, on his way to help victims of an earthquake in Managua, Nicaragua. Clemente was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1973, becoming the first Latino and Caribbean player (and second of Hispanic descent) to do so.
Green is a perfect match for a film about Clemente, given the director’s baseball background. “I had two big-league tryouts, with the Mets and the Reds, and I didn’t make either team,” Green said in a press statement about the film. “Growing up Black and Puerto Rican in New York, Clemente was always there. Not just a great player. Proof that you give everything on every single play, on and off the field, until the day he died trying to help people he’d never even met. That’s the story I want to tell.”
Jaquén Castellanos writes a previous draft of the film’s script, based on David Maraniss‘ biography “Clemente: The Passion And Grace Of Baseball’s Last Hero.” Producer Teton Ridge Entertainment also has the exclusive control of Clemente’s life rights for the film, following a legal battle with another production company, Inside The Park, LLC, over IP rights to Clemente’s story. Clemente’s family is on Teton Ridge’s side, and endorses the upcoming picture. “My family and I are proud to see Teton Ridge Entertainment working on our father’s life story,” said Roberto Clemente Jr on the subject. “We believe my father’s story deserves to be told with the integrity and excellence he always embodied. We look forward to a film befitting my father’s extraordinary legacy both on and off the baseball diamond.”
Producers on the biopic include Ben Silverman, Jay Weisleder, Chiara Bernasconi, and Strike Three Films. Jen Gorton and Brandon Mattingly will oversee the production for Teton Ridge.
Green’s career highlight as director remains “King Richard,” which earned six Oscar nods in 2021 including Best Picture, with Will Smith winning for Best Actor. Follow-up “Bob Marley: One Love” was a modest box-office success, grossing $181 million globally. Green’s also has several recent TV credits this decade, including HBO‘s “We Own This City,” Netflix‘ “Top Boy,” and the Marvel Disney+ series “The Punisher: One Last Kill.” Up next for Green? Yet another biopic, this one about Tiger Woods.
Stay tuned for who will star as Clemente in the upcoming biopic, no doubt a coveted role for any up-and-coming Puerto Rican actor.
