In this era of reboots, revivals, sequels, prequels and spinoffs, it’s usually exciting (and scary) to see which IP gets expanded upon next. Sometimes, the ideas producers come up with seem great and, at other times, they prove to be unworthy of the original material. The 1989 baseball drama Field of Dreams, one of Kevin Costner's biggest movies from the '80s, was nearly made into a TV show by Michael Shur. Now, the writer and producer is opening up about everything he and his team did to make it a reality, before it was scrapped.
In 2021, it was announced that the Parks and Rec co-creator, who's also known for his work on shows such as The Office, The Good Place and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, was developing a Field of Dreams TV show for Peacock. The NBCUniversal streamer gave it a straight-to-series order and, at that point, it seemed everything was set to go. The show was going to reimagine the story featured in the beloved flick, which is arguably one of the best sports films ever. Unfortunately, in 2022, it was announced that the company had scrapped the project.
Michael Schur opened up about the production while appearing on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast. He said that NBCUniversal had come to him while he was finishing The Good Place to ask about a small-screen offshoot of the iconic film. Shur was hesitant since he was dealing with a pre-existing IP that's so well known and didn’t want to screw it up. Not only that, but he loves the movie and baseball. He said yes, and it took six months for him to figure out how to approach the series. Shur also started to put a cast together:
So for the next, man, I don’t year, I would say it was probably 18 or 20 months from the beginning to end I broke out the story. It was going to be seven hours long, sort of like a miniseries, limited series, with the possibility of future versions, future seasons. We got a writing staff together, we wrote the seven scripts, and we had a lot of casting lined up to be in it. Andre Bower was going to play James Earl Jones’ role. Kristen Bell was gonna be in it. Nick Offerman was gonna be in it. Will Harper, who played Chidi on The Good Place, was gonna be in it.
That's a great lineup, and I'm curious as to how they would've played off each other. Not only did he assemble stars, but the EP also found the perfect location that would serve as the setting for the show. What he described during his interview was quite picturesque, but scouting the place was apparently "maddening":
What happens is you got to a site in Iowa, and you drive through endless fields of corn, and you come upon a beautiful picturesque white farmhouse, and you look around, and you think like, ‘Yeah, this, you know, could work. Seems like the right kind of look.’ And then you go, ‘Okay, let’s go to the next one.’ And then you drive for 48 minutes through cornfields, and you arrive at a nearly identical white farmhouse, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah, this could also work.’ And we just did that. It was insane. It was maddening. For like two days, all we did was drive through cornfields and come upon white farmhouses and then nod and say, ‘Yes, this could also work.’
I Watched Field Of Dreams For The First Time, And I Have Thoughts
They did end up choosing a white farmhouse that was situated on a little hill. What was helpful to them was that the house was basically located in the middle of nowhere, so the eventual production wouldn't have been interrupted by sounds. “It was perfect,” as Shur repeated. They rented about six acres and began construction on the baseball field to make it look almost exactly like the one from the movie. They put in so much work, which makes it all the sadder that it didn't come to fruition.
It's unknown if any kind of reboot will ever happen now but, considering the film is so beloved, it could still be a possibility. Plus, that aforementioned area could still be viable for production. Or perhaps the actual Iowa-based Field of Dreams, which has seen damage. It’s clear Michael Shur was passionate about the project and had a true vision for what he wanted it to be. Fans will likely continue to wonder just how good the show could've been but, at least right now, can always sign up for a Netflix subscription to watch the movie, which never gets old.
