File photo
Scioto County native Branch Rickey, whose image is featured on the Portsmouth Floodwall, will be played by Academy Award nominee Harrison Ford in the upcoming movie “42,” scheduled to be released April 13, 2013.
By RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY
PDT Staff Writer
Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures have announced April 13, 2013, as the release date for their upcoming film “42”. The film chronicles the Scioto County native Branch Rickey as he drafts Jackie Robinson to be the first black player to the join Major League Baseball in 1947.
Directed by Brian Helgeland, the film stars Academy Award nominee Harrison Ford (“Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” “Air Force One,”) as Rickey, and Chadwick Boseman (“The Express”) as Robinson. Also starring are Nicole Beharie (“Shame”) Christopher Meloni (upcoming “Man of Steel”) and T.R. Knight (TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy”).
The film is expected to open in time to commemorate the 66th anniversary of Jackie Robinson Day celebrating his first Major League game. The film also opens in time for the start of the 2013 Major League Baseball season.
The film will start production on May 14 in Birmingham, Ala., with additional locations to include Macon and Atlanta, Ga., and Chattanooga, Tenn., where the production will mount much of the film’s baseball action at Engel Stadium, double for Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field.
Born in Scioto County in 1881, Wesley Branch Rickey became president of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club in 1917, and saw the team to six pennants and four World Series titles. During this time, he also organized the baseball farm system. In 1942, he moved to Brooklyn as president of the Dodgers where he signed Robinson in 1947. He left the Dodgers in 1950 to become vice president of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he was elected chairman of the board at Pittsburgh in 1955. Four years later he was tapped to be president of the Continental Baseball League, which never materialized. He retired in 1960 to write a book, and returned to the Cardinals as a consultant in 1962.
Rickey died in 1965 and is buried in Rushtown Cemetery in Scioto County.
Ryan Scott Ottney can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 235, or rottney@heartlandpublications.com.
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