I get why you’d change the team in a remake of Damn Yankees – after all, the Washington Senators don’t exist anymore. And making the team the Cubs, who just can’t stop losing, also makes lots of sense. But dropping many of the songs from the classic musical and then adding new ones – including one about steroids? Well, when this is all the brainchild of the guy behind Bandslam I’m going to be a touch skeptical.
Todd Graff talked to MTV about his remake, which will feature Jake Gyllenhaal as a fan who sells his soul to the Devil (Jim Carrey) in order to become the greatest baseball player of all time. Graff thinks you couldn’t remake Damn Yankees without ‘roids. Says Graff:
“If a character like Joe Hardy — who’s the character in ‘Damn Yankees’ — sprung out of nowhere and was hitting 70 home runs in a season, who would not think immediately ‘steroids’… So [steroids] is not even a side character for us; it’s our main character. No one is going to think, ‘Oh, it’s because he made a deal with the devil!’ They’d think, ‘He’s juicing!’ “
While Graff is losing many numbers – and adding up to six new songs – he is keeping What Lola Wants, which is a no-brainer. Graff says that his version is going to be Jerry Maguire with songs, and I’m not sure how that’s supposed to make us feel good about it.
Graff also remains mum on what role Ted Nugent will have in this version. Tommy Shaw has already been confirmed to be a Louisville Slugger.
4 comments
I saw the broadway play of DAmn Yankees when Jerry Lewis was playing the devil. It was a pretty damn good play and Jerry even had a little part where he got to go off script and just ad lib. Something i will never forgt. This movie? Meh.
its good to see that pure talent athleticism cannot be appreciated anymore without speculation/paranoia about their past.. they test for drugs hardcore now in the mlb. get over it. this guy hasn't watched a game in his life, if a rookie came out of nowhere and hit 70HRs thats talent, fool. when an aged veteran suddenly gains 20-30lbs of muscle and his HR rate gets to be 20 more than his career average, yes, thats roids.. veterans use roids to avoid injury first and foremost (achey Bonds on the bench for sure without roids), rookies ride high on the talent that got them there.. sucks that this will reach a huge audience with jim and jake onboard.. missing this for sure.
Graff is spot on — without incorporating steroids into the story, there's no way we'd believe this tale of a man selling his soul to a fictional entity through song. Thank goodness Graff is there to ground this story in the reality it needs to help the audience suspend disbelief. I think I'll just put on my soundtrack of the original production and pretend I didn't read this.
Wow this is a shoe in for flop of the year. Reason #1 – Its a musical. No heterosexual man in their right mind will sit through a musical unless your Adam A with an unhealthy obsession of Jerry Lewis. 2. Its a musical about sports, not just any sport the most boring sport next to soccer. 3.Since its a musical about baseball even the chunky housewives that would normally get their panties all moist from news of a new movie musical will avoid a baseball musical like the plague. Other than that I am sure it will be great!
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