You might be unfamiliar with the name Michael Schur, but there is a very good chance you are familiar with his brilliant brand of comedy. From Parks and Recreation to the US version of The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine andThe Good Place, Schur knows how to get us hooked and how to make us laugh. If that wasn’t enough to impress you, he also worked as a writer for Saturday Night Live from 1997–2004.
Now, the talented writer and showrunner is setting his sights on bringing 1989’s Field of Dreams to the small screen with a series that has been immediately picked up by US streaming platform Peacock.
The ’89 film version (which was based on W. P. Kinsella’s 1982 novel Shoeless Joe) starred Kevin Costner as a farmer from Iowa who hears a mysterious voice instructing him to construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. The pitch subsequently attracts the ghosts of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and other famous ballplayers. Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones, and Amy Madigan also starred in the film which was nominated for best picture, best-adapted screenplay, and best score at the Academy Awards.
Schur’s version of the film will reportedly “reimagine the mixture of family, baseball, Iowa and magic that makes the movie so enduring and beloved.”
Erin Underhill, president of Universal Television, said that when it came to entrusting someone with such a beloved IP, Schur was the MVP.
“Field of Dreams is an iconic Universal Film title from venerable producers Lawrence and Charles Gordon, that we could only have entrusted to Mike Schur,” Underhill said. “His talent, his love for baseball and his reverence for its themes make him the perfect choice to revisit this beloved film that evokes nostalgia and visceral emotion in so many of its fans.”
Baseball seems to be the hot topic in the film and television industry at the moment, with 1992’s A League of Their Own also getting the remake treatment — and starring none other than Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman.
The series comes from Will Graham and Broad City co-creator Abbi Jacobson and will focus on the women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League with Offerman taking on the key role of Casey “Dove” Porter — the team’s coach.
Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden (who starred in Schur’s hit series The Good Place), Gbemisola Ikumelo, Kelly McCormack, Roberta Colindrez and Priscilla Delgado also star in the series, which features recurring guest stars Molly Ephraim, Kate Berlant and Melanie Field.
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