Sports cable network ESPN is sticking with the made-for-TV movie business for the long haul, with projects about fallen baseball hero Pete Rose and late NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt set to air in the fall.
ESPN Original Entertainment senior vice president Ron Semiao said Wednesday during ESPN’s session at the summer Television Critics Association press tour that original movies are going to become a regular part of the cable network’s schedule.
“Clearly, ESPN always has been and always will be about sports, news and information and life events,” he said. “But as we look to...reach more viewers, there’s so many great stories in sports that we plan to be in the scripted entertainment business, the scripted movie business, for the long term.”
With a number of telefilms in development, ESPN is on track to begin airing several original movies a year, Semiao said. Its previous films includes 2002’s “A Season on the Brink,” starring Brian Dennehy as basketball coach Bobby Knight, and “The Junction Boys,” with Tom Berenger as football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.
On Wednesday, the network presented to TV critics the two new films set to air in the fall.
“Hustle,” which bows Sept. 25, stars Tom Sizemore in the story of Rose’s gambling-related downfall, while “3,” set to premiere Dec. 11, stars Barry Pepper as Earnhardt, who died in a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500.
“Hustle” director Peter Bogdanovich, famed for such feature films as “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon,” said Wednesday that he shot the movie much differently than his previous efforts.
“Rather than (shooting a scene) in bits and pieces the way films are usually done, I let (the actors) play the whole scene,” he said. “We had two cameras, and we caught it the way you do at a sporting event. So it seemed to fit with the story, kind of grabbing it so that it wouldn’t interrupt the performances.”