Jason Bateman found his next project. Accordingly meetingBateman will star and direct the television adaptation daddy ballA Article in Esquire Magazine 2021 by David Gauvey Herbert, which describes a rivalry between two fathers, set in the world of youth sports.
Deadline reports that a bidding war for the rights to dark comedy series ensued with “eight bids on the table.” However, Netflix and Bateman’s production company Aggregate prevailed and won the bid.
What can you expect at the Daddy Ball?
Daddy Ball describes a heated conflict between two Long Island dads: Bobby Sanfilippo and John Reardon. What begins as a minor confrontation between the fathers spirals out of control, and both men take their teenage athletic rivalry far too far.
“It starts in the world of little league baseball and escalates into a beef-like war between two petty crime fathers,” reports Deadline. “Both Sanfilippo and Reardon have their own criminal records, but what happened at Baseball Heaven in the summer of 2012 will forever mark them and their families. Allegations of stalking, threatening text messages and a subsequent wrongful arrest are at the heart of it all. It’s a story about how much fathers go through for their sons.”
Bateman, Roxie Rodriguez and Michael Costigan will co-produce Daddy Ball for Aggregate, with David Flawans as executive producer.
Bateman and Netflix previously collaborated on Ozark, the Emmy Award-winning crime drama about a family who launders money for the Mexican drug cartel. Bateman won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series in 2019. Other Netflix projects Bateman has worked on include Arrested Development and Florida Man, on which the 54-year-old actor served as executive producer.
Herbert is currently developing a few more items for TV series, including The Ballad of Ron & Dorinda, Boss of the Beach, and Camp Shane.