Jon Hamm to star in Tom McCarthy's 'Million Dollar Arm'

When I had a chance to speak with Tom McCarthy during the press run for Win Win, the uber-scribe was positively glowing when asked about Million Dollar Arm, his upcoming sports drama for Disney. McCarthy has directed nearly everything he's written, but at this point Disney has yet to make any firm decisions on who will be behind the camera. What we do is who will be the film's headliner, with Deadline reporting that Mad Men star, Jon Hamm, has stepped into the lead role.

Hamm will play sports agent J.B. Bernstein in the true story of how he discovered Major League pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel through an Indian reality show he created. Titled 'Million Dollar Arm', the show was launched in 2008 to discover who could throw the fastest and most accurate baseball. Out of 40,000 contestants, Singh and Patel were the stand outs. The film will cover how the burnt out Bernstein began the show, discovered the two players, and then must acclimate them to American culture. Yep, this sounds like something right in McCarthy's wheelhouse.

Here's hoping Disney will smarten up and let McCarthy direct his own script, as he's found nothing but success three times already with The Visitor, The Station Agent, and Win Win. He also has a story credit on Pixar's Up.