In an alternate universe, there’d be one more sports movie in existence with Kevin Costner at the helm.
Think of all the class sports films that the Yellowstone actor has been a part of. Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, For the Love of the Game, Tin Cup, Draft Day… there’s almost too many to count. And if things would have gone a bit differently in 2016, we may have had another baseball movie to add to that resume.
During a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, the soon to be 72-year-old actor was asked if he’d ever return to the sports genre. Considering Costner has had a couple of lackluster projects as of late (specifically with his Horizon: An American Saga films), the actor and director is understandably being more selective.
That being said, Costner confessed that he’d love to do another sports movie, but it would have to be something that really spoke to him:
“I would. I made ‘Field of Dreams’ and ‘Bull Durham’ back to back, and one was thought of as box office poison. ‘Field of Dreams’ and ‘Bull Durham’ separated themselves. I never saw that as being a risk… I just knew I read something great in ‘Bull Durham.’ I knew I read something great in ‘Field of Dreams.’ The whole idea of this game is you try to match your sensibilities up with the audience.”
I would imagine that, in the modern day, it’d be tough to find a script that delivers like one of those classics.
Not only would it have to be a great script for Coster, the movie would need to fit himself and his abilities. He’s a strong believer in a sports filming needing to be believable to be successful:
“But that being said, if one comes across, and I can fit… the one thing you don’t want to do is try to (fit). If if you don’t fit in a sports movie, you just shouldn’t do it. Doesn’t matter how much you love the sport. You owe the sport the reality that you can bring to it.”
I’m immediately thinking of all those sports movies where the actors have clearly never thrown a football before they got the role. I’d have to agree with Costner on that one.
And funny enough, Kevin Costner says he had the perfect idea for a sports movie laid out and ready to go, but it was spoiled by something that happened in real life. Though he didn’t disclose what exactly the movie would have been, Costner did say that once a certain MLB team took home the World Series trophy, the movie was trashed:
“I would do another one. I had one and then the Cubs went and won the World Series. So I had one at one point. I was going to do it.”
C’mon 2016 Chicago Cubs… hope the World Series victory was worth it, because it cost everyone else another baseball movie starring Kevin Costner.
I’m guessing the film would have revolved around the famous “Billy Goat Curse” that allegedly kept the Cubs from winning the World Series for over seven decades. Or it could have tackled any of the hexes that many Chicago fans thought their team was under until they finally broke through in 2016.
So Costner isn’t going to return for that Cubs movie… but as he revealed in the interview below, he could come back to the sports genre if it all felt right:
