Every year, as Spring Training games begin and the weather starts to warm, our thoughts turn to baseball... and our favorite baseball movies. Amid the picks of Field of Dreams or The Natural, an overlooked gem continues to be Daniel Stern's underappreciated Rookie of the Year, which starred eventual American Pie co-star Thomas Ian Nicholas as a 12-year-old pitcher with a surgically enhanced arm. Why is it that movie never produced a sequel? We actually met with Nicholas at Wizard World in St. Louis, and discovered that he has a pretty great idea for Rookie of the Year 2 that he wants to get off the ground. He tells CinemaBlend:
I actually did pitch Fox a reboot/sequel. They are interested in possibly doing a sequel or a reboot at some point, but not quite yet. So I think my plan is, this year I'm going to launch one of those crazy PledgeFilm campaigns. There's PledgeMusic, which started before Kickstarter. Everybody knows Kickstarter. But they have a charitable aspect to their crowdfunding campaign. So I like that a little bit better.I would hire Sam Harper, who wrote Rookie of the Year, and also wrote Cheaper By The Dozen. My concept is -- my son is 6. I could have a 12-year-old kid. Maybe he suffers the same sort of fate of getting a fast-pitch arm. But I don't want him to do it, then he ends up getting drafted. But then Henry's gotta join the team too, and maybe he never lost his arm. Maybe he has to come to the rescue at some point? I don't know.
Successful comedies usually produce sequels. That's why we have three Major League movies. No one needed two Major League sequels. And yet, the 1993 comedy Rookie of the Year -- which also starred Gary Busey, Dan Hedaya and Daniel Stern -- didn't parlay its $56 million haul into a follow up film. However, as Thomas Ian Nicholas likely understands, everything that is old is now new again, and with reboot efforts like Death Wish, Beauty and the Beast, Murder on the Orient Express and more making their way to theaters, the time to reboot or revitalize Rookie of the Year is now.
Check out Thomas Ina Nicholas pitching his concept for Rookie of the Year 2 to CinemaBlend while at Wizard World St. Louis.
Would you be down for Rookie of the Year 2? The idea for the sequel isn't very original, but it would play into the nostalgia people have for the original comedy. Take our poll below, and we'll see if we can help Thomas Ian Nicholas make this happen.
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