Million Dollar Arm is a 2014 American biographical sports drama film directed by Craig Gillespie and produced by Walt Disney Pictures from a screenplay written by Tom McCarthy.
The film is based on the true story of baseball pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel who were discovered by sports agent J.
B. Bernstein, Bill Paxton as pitching coach Tom House, Suraj Sharma as Singh, Madhur Mittal as Patel, and Alan Arkin.
He and Ash approach investor Mr. Chang with a proposal — "Million Dollar Arm", an Indian talent contest to find two winning pitchers who will be flown to the U.S. and coached to become Major League Baseball prospects.
B. is guided by local businessman Vivek and hires enthusiastic Amit Rohan as his interpreter, and bonds over Skype with his tenant back home, Brenda.
Joined by Ray Poitevint, a curmoudgeonly major league scout, they hold tryouts in numerous cities until two winners emerge — Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel.
Various media outlets, including ESPN and Sports Illustrated, join major league scouts to see the boys pitch in Tempe, Arizona, with their families and Vivek watching in India.
Amit delivers an inspiring speech to Rinku and Dinesh, who impress Chang and the scouts with accurate 90+ mph fastballs.
An epilogue reveals footage of the real Rinku and Dinesh, who were offered contracts by the Pirates, becoming the first Indian athletes signed by a major American sports league; Amit returned to India to coach baseball; and J.
ESPN personalities Jayson Stark, Karl Ravech, and Steve Levy, journalist Ken Rosenthal, and retired Major League Baseball players Barry Larkin and Curt Schilling have cameo appearances in the film.
In 2008, television sports producers and brothers Neil and Michael Mandt began documenting the training and tryouts that Singh and Patel were undergoing at the USC campus.
[6] The project was eventually put in turnaround and in 2010, producers Roth and Ciardi set the film up at Walt Disney Pictures.
[22] Million Dollar Arm was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on October 7, 2014.
The site's consensus reads: "Pleasant to a fault, Million Dollar Arm is a middle-of-the-plate pitch that coasts on Jon Hamm's considerable charm without adding any truly original curves to Disney's inspirational sports formula.
[28] Scott Foundas of Variety described the film as a "sharp, slickly produced addition to the Disney sports movie canon [that] works as both a stirring underdog tale and as a revealing look at the expanding global footprint of the American sports-entertainment machine."
Foundas also praised McCarthy's screenplay and Gillespie's direction, elaborating that they "put across the movie's many cliches with a certain verve, and find room for unexpected detours and grace notes in an overall familiar trajectory.
"[29] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Dutifully covering all the requisite inspirational sports movie/fish-out-of-water bases yet still managing to throw a few fresh curves into the mix, Disney's Million Dollar Arm assuredly hits a home run.