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Back in 2021, Michael Schur was attached to a series adaptation of one of the most beloved sports movies ever made — Field of Dreams. Peacock had issued a straight-to-series order for the project, believing that his experience in mixing the “whimsical” with more grounded, relatable elements in shows like The Good Place would be the perfect match for rebuilding the Kevin Costner classic. Progress was far enough along that cameras were preparing to roll in the summer of 2022, but, according to Schur in a conversation with Vulture in 2023, “They just changed their mind” and “didn’t want to spend the money anymore,” leading to the cancellation. Now, the creator has opened up in a larger interview with Variety about his plans for the series and why he wanted to take on Field of Dreams.
Released in 1989, the original Field of Dreams was based on the novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella and followed Ray Kinsella (Costner), an Iowa farmer who one day hears a mysterious voice telling him, “If you build it, he will come,” and witnesses a vision of a ball diamond. Compelled to act, he constructs a baseball field on his property, which attracts the ghosts of the sport’s past from the crops, led by “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) of the infamous Black Sox. As the legendary players play ball once again, the life-changing supernatural experience ultimately helps Ray come to terms with his past and his relationship with his late father. An in-depth ballpark had already been built in Iowa for the Schur’s series and, as he revealed in an episode of the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, multiple regulars from his past projects were ready to star, including The Good Place‘s Kristen Bell and William Jackson Harper, Parks and Recreation‘s Chris Pratt and Nick Offerman, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘sAndre Braugher.
Schur told Variety that “As of now, nothing’s happening with it,” at Peacock or elsewhere, though that’s not for a lack of trying. He revealed that he had penned two versions of the script in hopes that, one day, someone would come with an interest in making the series a reality:
“I actually have two whole different versions of it. There was the original one that I did with the writers who worked on it. That was a seven-episode series. Once Peacock decided not to make it, I did a second version that was shorter. It was five episodes, to see if someone else would jump in. So the scripts exist in both of those forms. Maybe someday the world will turn in a way that allows it to come to fruition. I’m not sure.”
Source: Variety
