LOS ANGELES, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Richard Linklater has signed to direct "The Bad News Bears" for Paramount Pictures, the Hollywood Reporter said Thursday.
Billy Bob Thornton will star in the remake of the 1976 Walter Matthau comedy about a washed up minor league baseball player who transforms a team of Little League losers into winners.
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Linklater is best known as the director of the 2003 Jack Black comedy "School of Rock" and the earlier independent films "Slacker" and "Dazed and Confused." The screenplay for the updated "Bad News Bears" was written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who wrote Thornton's 2003 dark comedy, "Bad Santa."
