Billy Bob Thornton joins "Three Nights" team

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Billy Bob Thornton has signed on to produce "Three Nights in August," a scripted baseball tale based on Buzz Bissinger's well-received book.

The nonfiction tome looks at a 2003 series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, taking readers into the mind and dugout of Cards skipper Tony La Russa.

Thornton, known to be a vocal Cardinals fan, will join Red Bird Cinema managing director John Loar in producing the picture. Writer-actor Kevin Pollak, La Russa and Bissinger will executive produce.

Thornton is known primarily as an actor and director, though he did produce one movie, the Tex-Mex romance "All the Pretty Horses," which he also directed.

There's a possibility he could take a role in the picture, but it likely won't be the La Russa part, Loar said.

Baseball projects like "Moneyball" have had a rough time in Hollywood of late, but the project's producers say they think "August" offers a refreshing take on the subject.

"There are a lot of baseball movies out there, and a lot of them are based on the won-loss component," Loar said. "What this does is go inside the day-to-day happenings of the locker room and how a manager thinks about all the decisions he has to make. It's going to be challenging, but Billy Bob has a good handle on it."

Loar said he's hopeful that if the appropriate writer and director are brought on board, the project could shoot as early as next year.

(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)