Jim Sheridan has signed on to direct World War II baseball drama ‘Playing with the Enemy’, based on the true story of an American baseball player, Gene Moore, who taught German prisoners of war in Louisiana to play the beloved US sport during their imprisonment.
Adapted from a memoir by Gary W. Moore about his father’s war experiences, 'Playing with the Enemy' will examine the friendship that developed between German prisoners and their American captors; in parallel with the father telling the story to his son.
A baseball prodigy at the age of 15, Gene Moore was drafted to play with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1940 before joining the US Navy and being stationed at the POW camp in Louisiana where he encounters the German prisoners.
The film will be produced by Mr Sheridan and New Myth Entertainment partners David Ranes and Tom De Santo, with executive producers Grace Oppenheimer and Wayne Duband.
Before that, Mr Sheridan will begin filming ‘Sheriff Street’ in Dublin this September - produced by New Myth Entertainment - inspired by own his upbringing about a working class family in 1960s Dublin called the Sheridans.
He is also collaborating with his daughter Naomi on animated fairytale 'David and the Fairy King', which the pair co-wrote and hope to get made with Disney, inspired by tales of Irish property developers who destroyed fairy forts.
Mr Sheridan hopes to get Robert Downey Junior to voice the lead role of an Irish-American who catches the king of the fairies, in his first project with Naomi since their 2002 Oscar nomination for writing ‘In America’.
Earlier this week Mr Sheridan signed with WME’s Robert Newman and Manage-Ment’s Dan Halsted – marking a reversal of fortune for the Irish director following the critical and commercial failure of his last film ‘Dream House’, starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz.
