LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Hollywood icon Robert Redford is to produce and take a starring role in a film about baseball star Jackie Robinson, the first major league African-American player of the modern era, sports broadcaster ESPN said Monday.
ESPN said the company's films division was teaming with Redford to make the film, which will focus on the relationship between Robinson and Brooklyn Dodgers' president Branch Rickey, who will be played by Redford.
The company statement did not indicate who would portray Robinson.
Robinson's debut for the Dodgers in 1947 ended several decades of segregation between black and white players in American baseball.
It is not the first time that Robinson's life has been brought to the big screen. The baseball player, who died in 1972, starred in 1950's "The Jackie Robinson Story."
The new film is being made with the with approval of Robinson's widow, Rachel, the Rickey family and Major League Baseball, the statement said.
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