in the summer of 1946, Jackie Robinson cracked the bat and ran the bases just like every other player on the Montreal Royals, but Robinson’s story is not just a baseball story. As the first black man in this century to play in the major leagues, Robinson’s signing has been cited as a pivotal event in the civil rights movement and an important Canadian contribution to the sport’s emancipation.

Now, on the 50th anniversary of the event, the Toronto husband and wife duo of writer Kevin Boland and director Gail Harvey (The Shower, Cold Sweat) are hoping to tell Robinson’s story in Run, Jackie, Run: The Man Who Broke The Colour Line in Major League Baseball.

Harvey says she and Boland are open to doing the project as a feature or as an mow, feeling it will be marketable either way. ‘I definitely think it’s commercial and it has potential for foreign distribution and appeal,’ says Harvey.

Having secured development money from fund, Harvey and Boland are in discussions with a Montreal coproducer and a broadcaster.

Through two years of research, Harvey says Robinson, a hot-tempered man, was accepted warmly by the people of Montreal. So much so that Robinson’s wife, concerned they’d never find anywhere to live in the city, was offered the first apartment she looked at.

‘A whole nation rallied around this one man,’ says Harvey. ‘It’s an inspirational story.’

Talent is already attached to the project. Michael Jai White, who was featured in The James Mink Story and played Mike Tyson in the hbo movie, will star as Jackie. You can see him next as the lead in the New Line picture Spawn. Rachel Crawford, who was also in The James Mink Story as well as in Rude and When Night Is Falling, will play Jackie’s wife.

When in Munich

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