Powell and Linklater reunite for Lou Gehrig biopic at Universal
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Actor Glen Powell and director Richard Linklater are reuniting for a third collaboration, taking on an untitled Lou Gehrig biopic at Universal Pictures. The pair previously worked together on "Hit Man" and "Everybody Wants Some!!", and the new project brings in "Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels as producer through his Broadway Video banner, alongside "SNL" writer Simon Rich, who will pen the script.
The film will chronicle the life of the Yankees legend nicknamed "the Iron Horse" for playing a then-record 2,130 consecutive games, a career cut short by his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Gehrig's emotional 1939 farewell speech at Yankee Stadium, in which he called himself "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth," has become one of sport's most famous addresses; he died in 1941 aged 37. Gehrig's story was previously told in the 1942 film "The Pride of the Yankees" starring Gary Cooper, and this new take will be produced by Powell's Barnstorm banner and Linklater's Detour Filmproduction.
- Powell and Linklater team up for third time on Lou Gehrig biopic
- Lorne Michaels producing; Simon Rich writing the script
- Follows Gehrig's record streak, ALS diagnosis and 1939 farewell speech
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Glen Powell and Richard Linklater are teaming up for a third time, now working on a film about baseball player Lou Gehrig for Universal Pictures. The project is currently untitled and is still in early development, with Saturday Night Live figure Lorne Michaels producing and writer Simon Rich attached to the script.
Gehrig played for the New York Yankees in the 1920s and 1930s and became known as the Iron Horse for playing 2,130 consecutive games, a record that stood for decades. His career ended after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that affects the nerves and muscles, and he gave a widely remembered farewell speech at Yankee Stadium in 1939 before dying two years later at the age of 37.
The story matters both as a notable Hollywood pairing, given Powell and Linklater's earlier collaborations, and as a fresh telling of a story already dramatised once before, in a 1942 film starring Gary Cooper.
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Originally published by Variety as “Glen Powell, Richard Linklater Teaming Up for Lou Gehrig Biopic, Lorne Michaels Producing”.