Movie Flashback: Bull Durham

Simply one of the best baseball movies ever made. Also, one of the funniest movies ever made.

I would have to sit down and make out my list, but chances are that this film would still be in my Top-10 All-Time favorite movies.

Bull Durham was released in the summer of 1988.

The film starred Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, and a then little known Tim Robbins.

Costner had just enjoyed great success the previous year with the releases of “No Way Out” and “The Untouchables”.

Robbins was the not the original choice to play pitcher “Ebby Nuke LaLoosh“. The Studio wanted Anthony Michael Hall of “The Breakfast Club” and “16 Candles” fame.

The film was shot on location in Durham, North Carolina on a budget of $9 Million. It went on to gross over $50 Million in theaters and has become a classic in the twenty-plus years since it’s release.

Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins would become a real-life couple during the filming of the movie and would stay together for twenty years after Bull Durham.

The film was written and directed by Ron Shelton who wrote of his own experiences as a Minor-League Baseball player.

At one point, Sports Illustrated named it the Best Sports movie of All-Time.

Both Jeff Bridges and Don Johnson turned down the role of Crash Davis that would end up being played by Costner.

Kim Basinger auditioned for the role of Annie, eventually played by Susan Sarandon. Others considered for the role included Glenn Close, Carrie Fisher, Debra Winger, and Kelly McGillis.

The film was made during the fall and winter of 1987, requiring that the grass actually be painted green for the movie.

All three main stars would go on to continue very successful careers. Costner would later make films such as Dances with Wolves and Field of Dreams, Sarandon went on to Thelma and Louise, and Robbins would later go on to another of my all-time favorites, The Shawshank Redemption. All three Actors would win Academy Awards in the years following Bull Durham.

The film made me into a HUGE Susan Sarandon fan!