Geddy Lee Options Dave Bidini's Baseballissimo

"Geddy Lee, lead singer of Rush, has optioned the film and TV rights to Dave Bidini's Baseballissimo. Published in 2005 by McClelland & Stewart, Baseballissimo is the writer's story of his travels to the small town of Nettuno, the baseball capital of Italy since 1944." - Quill & Quire, June 24, 2010 - Thanks to John at Cygnus-X1.net for the headsup!

Update #1: "'Goon' co-writer and star Jay Baruchel is warming up to co-script sports comedy 'Baseballissimo' with writing partner Jesse Chabot." - Variety.com, September 11, 2011

 Update #2: "Jay Baruchel and his writing partner Jesse are working the script now. They’ll have the script delivered to us by Christmas. It’s great. We’ve had tons of interest in terms of getting the film made without actually having a working script. So it looks really positive. Those guys did a 10 page treatment of the film and I feel like they really get it. And Geddy [Lee, as in, of Rush, who is connected to the film] has run a band for 25 years, so he’s a natural producer. He’s a great communicator, and he’s great at gathering people together. We’re hoping for TIFF in 2013, which probably means shooting around the end of next fall. When Baseballissimo came out, it wasn’t that well promoted, but the people who liked the book really liked the book. It’s so neat that it’s had this second life 12 years after it came out. It just goes to show that if you have a good story and you believe in a good story, you never know where it’s going to lead." - Dave Bidini, Aux.tv, October 27, 2011