"Now Henry, the key to being a big league pitcher, is the three R's: readiness, recuperation, and conditioning! You see, after the game, a lot of guys like to ice up their arm. Still, other fellas think that heat is the way to go. But I, have discovered the secret, Henry…hot ice! I heat up…the ice cubes! It's the best of both worlds!"
– Phil Brickma
Fox has announced that they want to give you the cheese. The big, stinky cheddar, to be exact. What in the wide world of sports am I talking about? Well, it's now being reported by Deadline Hollywood that Fox is chalking up their gloves for a remake of the 1993 family sports comedy ROOKIE OF THE YEAR. You remember this one, right? "Pitcher's got a big butt," and all that jazz? As part of an ongoing development, Fox has tapped Dan Gregor (CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND) and Doug Mand (HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, MOST LIKELY TO MURDER) to rewrite the Daniel Stern-directed pic which starred AMERICAN PIE's Thomas Ian Nicholas as the kid baseball prodigy, Henry Rowengartner.
In the original ROOKIE OF THE YEAR, an accident gives a young boy a mean pitching arm through the power of "schmience." After wowing a crowd with his rocket-like throwing prowess, Henry gets recruited by the Chicago Cubs to start as their new pitcher. Along his journey up the corporate sports-related ladder, Henry learns that there's more to being a kid than living out your wildest dreams as a player for his favorite team.
Starring alogside Nicholas in the original film were Gary Busey as Chet Steadman, a player on his way out to pasture, Amy Morton as Henry's Mom with a cannon arm of her own, and Daniel Stern as Phil Brickma, a pitching coach whose taken one too many balls to noggin throughout his days as a field rat. ROOKIE OF THE YEAR is known to hang among other nostalgic family films such as THE MIGHTY DUCKS, HEAVBYWEIGHTS, CAMP NOWHERE, LADYBUGS, and LITTLE GIANTS, just to name a few.
We'll be sure to let you know when Fox's remake of ROOKIE OF THE YEAR plans to play ball as details arrive at the mound.