Much-awaited Disney film “Million Dollar Arm” set to hit the box office across Canada
TORONTO – In 2007, entrepreneurial sports agent JB Bernstein staged a reality show in India to find promising baseball talents amongst the cricket-loving population. Bernstein says, “The hope was to find the next Yao Ming (a retired Chinese NBA basketball star), except for baseball. Statistically speaking, in a country of 1.2 billion people, the odds are good that you will find an undiscovered raw talent. The hope was to capture all those cricket fans and turn them towards baseball.”
Based on a true story, sports agent JB Bernstein (played by Jon Hamm) finds that business has changed and things aren’t going well for his career. In a last-ditch effort to save his livelihood, he concocts a scheme to find baseball’s next great pitching ace. Hoping to find a young cricket pitcher he can turn into a Major League Baseball star, JB and his partner Ash travel to India to produce a reality show competition called “The Million Dollar Arm.”
With the help of cantankerous but eagle-eyed retired baseball scout Ray Poitevint (Alan Arkin),
he discovers Dinesh Patel (played by Madhur Mittal from “Slumdog Millionaire”) and Rinku Singh (played by Suraj Sharma from “Life of Pi”), two 18-year-old boys who have no idea about playing baseball, yet have a knack for throwing a fastball. Hoping to sign them to major league contracts and make a quick buck, JB brings the boys home to America to train.
While the Americans are definitely out of their element in India, the boys, who have never left their rural villages, are equally challenged when they come to the United States. As the boys learn the finer points of baseball, JB, with the help of his charming friend Brenda (Lake Bell), learns valuable life lessons about teamwork, commitment and what it means to be a family.
Music for the film was composed by A.R. Rahman. The soundtrack, which has seven original songs, is set for release on May 13, 2014. Iggy Azalea, KT Tunstall, Sukhwinder Singh and Canada’s Raghav Mathur collaborated with Rahman for the soundtrack. Kendrick Lamar has also recorded a song that will be featured in the film. The end credits for the film features one of Rahman's 1990s Tamil compositions sung by K. S. Chithra and Unnikrishnan. The album has tracks in English, Hindi and Tamil.
“Million Dollar Arm” is directed by Craig Gillespie and also stars Bill Paxton, Tom House, and Aasif Mandvi. The film is produced by Joe Roth (Roth Films) and also includes Palak Patel as and executive producer.
The film will be released in theatres on May 16, 2014.
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