Sordid details on the early days of ESPN are heading to the silver screen.
Deadline.com broke the news of 20th Century Fox's deal for the movie rights to the gossipy founding of the World Wide Leader in Sports.
Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who worked to together on last year's Best Picture nominee "The Social Network," have been selected to make the ESPN flick.
Julie Yorn, producer for "Red Riding Hood" and "Unstoppable," will also be part of the creative dream team.
James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales' oral history of the boys and girls who make sports TV in the woods of Central Connecticut is expected to feature the story of Keith Olbermann in a leading role. TheWrap.com believes Olbermann's character will be very appealing to a number of leading men.
Bill Simmons, aka "The Sports Guy," is also believed to have a large part in the motion picture.
ESPN charges cable and satellite companies an average of $3.65 per subscriber each month. The NY Times calculated that translates to $4.3 billion of revenue before the sale of a single minute of commercial time.
I'm looking forward to seeing who gets the role of Charley Steiner, now a Dodgers broadcaster, who had the greatest bloopers in the good ol' days at ESPN, before the network became the Wal-Mart of sports.
