Derek Cianfrance To Direct Film About Creation Of ESPN

Briefly: Derek Cianfrance is best known for heavy indie dramas like Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines, but his commercial work shows that he's got an interest in sports. Those various tendencies may well collide in a film that he's just been attached to direct.

Focus Features pulled the rights to adapt the book ESPN: Those Guys Have All the Fun out of turnaround when Fox decided not to make the movie. Now Focus has set Cianfrance to direct the film that will tell the story of the formation of ESPN.

Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti (Fifty Shades of Grey, The Social Network) will produce with Jamie Patricof and Lynette Howell. No writer has been hired to script at this point. [The Wrap]