Ron Shelton

[MacGuffin]

'Tin Cup' director signs up for 'School'
Ron Shelton co-wrote golf comedy with John Norville
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Ron Shelton is going back to the links.

The director behind "Tin Cup" and a veritable scorecard of sports movies has signed for "Q School," a golf comedy he will direct based on a script he co-wrote with "Cup" collaborator John Norville.

Dennis Quaid and Tim Allen are eyeing starring roles in the project, which David Friendly is producing via his Friendly Films Productions. The indie aims to start shooting in the spring.

"School" is described as a comedy in which a group of hopefuls battle it out in a competition to make the PGA Tour, with both their game and their personal lives sometimes ending up in the drink along the way. The title is a reference to qualifying school, an annual tournament in which several hundred aspiring pros compete for a limited number of spots on the following year's tour.

Shelton, who like Quaid and Allen is repped by WME, has had a run of Tom Watson-like proportions as the writer-director of sports movies. The former minor-league baseball player made his directorial debut more than 20 years ago with 1988's landmark hardball comedy "Bull Durham," then followed it up four years later with the Woody Harrelson-Wesley Snipes basketball pic "White Men Can't Jump."

In 1996, Shelton and the Paradigm-repped Norville entered a pairing for "Tin Cup," a more dramatic tale that starred Kevin Costner and earned $54 million at Warners.

Shelton also directed the 1999 boxing comedy "Play It to the Bone," a more modest performer. His most recent feature came with the Harrison Ford cop comedy "Hollywood Homicide" in 2003. He and Norville also have been attached to adapt the Barry Bonds steroids expose "Game of Shadows" for HBO and have penned the baseball-comeback tale "Our Lady of the Ballpark," an indie that's in development.

Quaid is coming off the opening-weekend success of "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and also stars in Overture's upcoming horror pic "Pandorum." Allen has anchored the "Santa Clause" franchise and starred in 2007 biker hit "Wild Hogs." The actor will make his directorial debut with the ex-con comedy "Crazy on the Outside."

Golf comedies have been among the more successful subgenres in the sports comedy category, with such movies as "Caddyshack" and "Happy Gilmore" becoming boxoffice and pop-culture breakouts.

[polkablues]

Besides Bull Durham and White Men Can't Jump, this guy's whole career has been movies that make you go, "Oh yeah, I sort of remember that one..."

[Gold Trumpet]

Tin Cup is considered the best golf movie ever by some golfers. I consider the movie to be his third excellent movie after Bull Durham and White Men Can't Jump. He'll always be well loved by sports fans (Bull Durham is in my top 5 fave movie list), but that hasn't translated to an acceptance among the average moviegoers. The general population want feel good and heroic with their sports movies.

Still, I'm excited for this movie. He knows the subject well and should do well to honor it.

[MacGuffin]

Billy Bob Thornton to star in boxing pic
'Bull Durham' helmer Ron Shelton to write and direct
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Million Dollar Billy Bob?

Billy Bob Thornton is attached to star in "Pound for Pound," a boxing drama based on a novel from F.X. Toole, the author of the book that became "Million Dollar Baby."

Ron Shelton will write and direct the indie film, which Leslie Greif and Herb Nanas are producing via their Greif Company banner.

The project centers on the parallel lives of a retired and widowed boxer beset by depression after his grandson is killed in a car accident and an up-and-coming teenage Latino fighter from a difficult background. The lives of the two intersect in unexpected ways.

Toole, the pen name for the late boxing cutman Jerry Boyd, gained fame two years after he died when the stories in his collection "Rope Burns," became the basis for the Clint Eastwood-Paul Haggis drama "Million Dollar Baby." The 2004 movie earned $207 million worldwide and was nominated for seven Oscars and won four, including best picture.

"Pound' was published two years later, the manuscript shaped by his agent Nat Sobel and a freelance editor.

The CAA-reped Thornton is attached to produce and star in the baseball drama "Three Nights in August," among other pics.

The WME-repped Shelton is also attached to direct "Q School," a golf comedy he wrote that Tim Allen and Dennis Quaid are eyeing for starring roles. The movie takes the director, know for a range of sports-themed movies such as "Bull Durham" and "White Men Can't Jump," back into the ring for the first time since "Play it to the Bone," a Las Vegas-set boxing pic he wrote and directed and which starred Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson.