Mathewson would make a good movie. Casting?

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Posted By: Ed

I think Matty's life is worthy of big screen. Costner would have been perfect had they written a screenplay when he was younger


Leo DiCaprio, perhaps? As long as it's not Ben Affleck! (not that the film will ever be made - producers would worry about no demographic draw)

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Posted By: T206Collector

People want to see conflict and resolution. Nobody likes the story of the goodie-goodie, clean nose. His story is only amazing in the context of all the rufians and outlaws playing the game contemporaneously with Mathewson.

Look, I'm about the biggest Matty fan there is -- I named my son Mathewson! -- but if you want to talk about a movie that's worth making, it's the Hal Chase story...

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Posted By: Steve f

Agreed, Hal Chase would be a huge draw. The Matty role could be big part in that flic as well.

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Posted By: Joe D.

I think it would be an awesome movie.

The Hitless Wonders Chicago Whitesox meet up against the mighty Chicago Cubs in the world series.

The town of Chicago must have been going crazy.

And in hollywood fashion.

David beats Goliath.


Thats the movie I would like to see.



edit to say: A Matty movie can be done... War hero, baseball immortal, and dieing young. There has to be enough material in there... it couldn't be a happy ending though!

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Posted By: Jerry

Matty was about 6' Tall, Most Hollywood actors are about 4' Tall. I exaggerate for effect

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Posted By: Dave F

As far as someone that looks a little like Matty that could play the part...the guy from "61" that played Maris...I think he could be fixed up to look a little like Matty...I can't recall the actor's name.

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Posted By: Mike

I wonder if Edward Norton is athletic enough to pull it off. He's never done a sports movie.

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Posted By: Ed

In the ruffians, therein lies the conflict. Let Chase and others be antagonists to this outstanding protagonists virtues. I'm not talking about a G rating. Make it R, gosh darnit.

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Posted By: Rich Klein

Eddie Freirson (sic) has created a one-man play about his life -- great stuff and well worth seeing if you ever get the chance.

Here is a link to his words on the subject

http://www.matty.org/notes.htm

As an FYI -- he was nice enough to perform this at the 2nd Deadball Era convention in Hot Springs in 2004

Rich

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Posted By: barrysloate

Barry Pepper played Maris in the movie 61*. He was a dead ringer for him. But he might not want to be typecast as a baseball player.

Perhaps a young athletic actor who doesn't necessarily look like Matty could fit the bill. But I don't think "The Life and Times of Christy Mathewson" will challenge "Spiderman 3" at the box office.

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Posted By: Ed

"Tragic Virtue" would catch an audience's eyes. I'm going to waste my law degree and write the screeenplay. I'll ask for investors later.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I just got the Special Edition of The Natural on DVD today and it's got an interesting short documentary on the life of Eddie Waitkus. I know that some of The Natural is based on Waitkus, but I think his life would make for a very interesting movie.

I have always thought that a movie could be made on the life of King Kelly or Ed Delahanty....two great players and characters whose lives were too short.

I think a Matty movie could be made, but it would have to be a made for TV movie - he was just too virtuous to be a big screen draw.

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Posted By: Mark L

I bet someone could sell a script about Cheif Meyers, maybe focused on the 1912 season. You could work in Matty, Merkle, Snodgrass... real tragedy there. I don't know about casting but you should get Owen Wilson to play the Pirates' Owen Wilson.

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Posted By: Dave F

Did the Pirates Owen Wilson have a crooked nose?

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Posted By: DMcD

After reading The Celebrant I thought it would make a terrific movie, done up as a period piece like Eight Men Out. Big question was who do you get to play Christy Mathewson? Matty was something of a Greek God in the looks department so you'd need an actor with the same Jack Armstrong, All-American Boy appeal. A Rock Hudson type (no queer jokes, please) with a strong, polite Jimmy Stewart character. I don't know which modern actor that would be. Tom Hanks? Too big and famous. Tom Hanks plays Tom Hanks. Leonardo DiCaprio? Too big of a dickhead. Ben Affleck? Maybe, but is he up to the job as an actor? Keanu Reeves? Yea, right. Barry Pepper was interesting in Saving Ryan's Privates and he was near-perfect as Roger Maris (however if you listen carefully in *61 he threw in a few oots and aboots ; he's a frigging Canadian, you know) but he don't look nothing like Matty. How about Tobey Maguire? He's got the haircut, anyway.



Years back Charles Durning did a bang-up one-man dramatization of the life and times of Casey Stengel. You might think this would have been like getting Don Knotts to play Hamlet but Durning as Stengel was brilliant! By that logic, you can only imagine the possibilities for Matty. Denzel Washington? Helen Mirren?

For John McGraw: a no-brainer, James Cagney, even if you have to dig him up. And what say when they film The Max Weder Story Tim Robbins gets the call?

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Posted By: Frank Evanov

Toby McGuire is too small to play "Big 6."

I can see DeCaprio as Matty, Mel Gibson as Chase and William H. Macy as Muggsy McGraw.

Frank

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

I'm afraid we have to face it...DiCaprio is no longer a dickhead.
Seen "The Departed"?

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Posted By: Bob

Just don't give the part of Matty to Matthew Modine. After seeing him portray Honus Wagner, I was ill.

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Posted By: Cy

After his stellar pitching in Major League, Charlie Sheen would be terrific as Matty.

Cy

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Posted By: Darren

McGraw--Jack Black
Matty--Brad Pitt

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Posted By: Patrick McMenemy

I'd cast Matt Damon as Matty.

He's also a huge Red Sox fan.

Patrick

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Posted By: howard

If the movie was made twenty years ago Mark Harmon would have been perfect.

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Posted By: dave

I've always thought that Matty's T205 looked like Harry Connick JR.