The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 17,1999 - 11 tostner's 'Love' shares romance and baseball The Hartford Courant . In his upcoming baseball flick, 'For Love of the Game," Kevin iostner gives new meaning to the erm pitcher's mound. Playing an aging Detroit Tigers her, Costner's uniform is so tight hat his sizzling fastballs seem to :ome from a painful need to be cleased from his his stingy jock- strap. At least that one aspect of the film should ensure a healthy female audi- ,nce for the typically guy-heavy ter- rain of typical baseball movies. But Costner has proved with his two atypical paeans to America's favorite l time - "Bull Durham" and . d of Dreams" - that he can rake both sexes sit up and beg for he human drama centering on the aseball diamond. "For Love of the Game," opening riday, finds Costner on familiar round, reveling in, as W.P. Kinsella Nould put it, the thrill of the grass. 'ostner plays Billy Chapel, a former All-Star at the peak of his career, who reflects on his sport and his apparently failed relationship with the love of his life. All the while he is concentrating on pitching a perfect game against the Yankees. It's an opportunity for the athletic actor to get into Gary Cooper mode on the mound: digging his cleats in the dirt, fixing a hawk-eyed stare on the bat- ter and winding up for a merciless throw. Costner's best moments are wordless scenes in which he locks out all the sound and color of the sta- dium to zero in on home plate, a silent vacuum of pure mental and physical concentration. "My love of the game is playing it," Costner said during a recent interview in New York. "I was never really a big fan, but playing the game is different." And he wears it well. Costner looks so at home on the field, he seems to have been destined to make "Bull Durham" and "Field of Dreams," two baseball movies whose fans are legion. Adding " F o r Love of the Game," in which Kelly Preston co-stars, creates a tidy base- ball trilogy for Costner fans. - 'For Love of the Game' had that same kind of gold dust on it when I read it," he says, explaining his deci- sion 'to make a third go at the dia- mond. "I didn't think of it as a third installment, but more of a good fit." Certainly a better fit for Costner than sporting gills in a world engulfed in water in 1995's "Waterworld" or the post-apocalyp- tic messenger duds of 1997's "The Postman." Costner is unapologetic about those idiosyncratic films, maybe even defensive. "I really like 'The Postman.' I can- not not like it," he says. "I think it's a really good movie." He worked so hard on "Love of the Game" that his pitching arm has only recently stopped hurting. To play the major leaguer Chapel, Costner had to throw hundreds of pitches at 80 mph for 20 consecutive days. His pitches aren't just fast, they're convincing. The film's soundtrack amplifies the sound of the pitch so dramatically, you can practically feel the ball whizzing by. "My arm was traumatized the first day," he says. "It hurt for about two months after (the movie was finished)." Where "Bull Durham" capitalized on the loopy chemistry of its stars and "Field of Dreams" mined the mystical spirituality of the game, Costner's new baseball film is very much one man's personal journey into his own heart. Spanning the length of a single game (filmed at Yankee Stadium), "For Love of the Game" is as much a love story as it is an examination of the game. Having had such a winning streak with baseball, would Costner consider donning the uniform on screen again? He gives that championship smile and you know his answer immediately. "Yeah," he says. "You only have to, look at my career and know that I would." Kevin "I really like 'The Postman"' Costner drinks coffee in "For Love of the Game." Networks haggle over new shows aos Angeles Times In Hollywood, it's often not Dough for you to succeed. requently, television executives ;ind themselves rooting for someone lse to fail - especially if that some- . is airing a show they helped >riginate. Two of this fall's most-ballyhooed ;ew prime-time series ---- "Roswell," i sci-fi drama that lands on the WB ext month, and "Action," a profani- y-laced Fox comedy premiering hursday- both started life at other ietworks. Developed for Fox, 'Roswell" changed venues when the &vork balked at putting the pro- V , on its fall schedule. "Action," meanwhile, was written for Home x Office and snatched up by Fox while the pay channel and production )ompany, Columbia TriStar elevision. haggled over financial erms. Such network-hopping has become ncreasingly common. Other series urrently shown on.a network differ- ,nt from where the seed was first 0ted include ABC's sitcom "Two iuys and a Girl," which Fox let go vhen officials decided they didn't Save a proper home for it; "The opranos," revived at HBO after Fox oyed with a prototype starring nthony LaPaglia in the central role; nd "JAG," which has blossomed To a successful CBS drama follow- g a year airing on NBC. e best example, however, may. '3rd Rock From the Sun," for *0h John Lithgow just picked up i: third Emmy. NBC leaped at the -'ince to acquire the show after '1C - which first ordered it-- was 'iderwhelmed by the finished prod- cL . Though "3rd Rock" hasn't 4ierged as the breakout smash it ini- mfly looked destined to become, the cision nevertheless proved an mbarrassment at the time to ABC, h was desperately in need of a 'ome dy. ::Television insiders say network hechos - given the tenuous nature ftheir jobs --can ill afford to turn Dp their noses at a potential winner, 'en if that means they can't claim 'il credit for shepherding the idea tong. Timing is so important," noted tn .Werner, a principal in the *ey-Werner Co., which produces " rd Rock." "Often, a good idea doesn't get to the public because it desn't fit the network's needs.... In spmne ways, you have to get beyond the impression of it being tarnished by (starting out elsewhere)." .';Execuves cite variousffactors behind the flow of concepts from one network to another, including the mandate to cut costs and a general sense of fear pervading the industry. Frazzled studio executives who have sunk money into series feel pressure to get them on somewhere, continu- ing to champion projects they once might have let die. "As things get more competitive, the pressure makes people act in ways they might not have acted before," said Chris Albrecht, HBO's president of original programming. "There's such a frenzy (to sell shows) that people are sending stuff around before they finish business in one place. I saw pilots this year that were still being considered by anoth- er network." A subtler influence involves "ver- tical integration" of the entertain- ment industry, with networks and studios aligned under the same cor- porate umbrella. A case in point is 20th Century Fox Television, which produces such programs as "The Simpsons" and "Ally McBeal" for its sister Fox network. The studio's marching orders include providing series to Fox, just as Disney intends to supply its net- work, ABC, and Warner Bros. serves the WB. Even so, 20th Century Fox TV President Sandy Grushow suggested companies also have to recognize when tangled corporate relationships result in a project being put in devel- opment at the wrong place. "Shotgun weddings between producers and networks are replacing traditional courtships," he said. "Every now and then, you're going to wake up the next morning and realize you're not made for each other." Grushow's unit has clearly been aggressive in shopping fare to other networks, including both "Roswell" and "Two Guys," which were initiat- ed at Fox. In the latter case, officials felt the series didn't fit the Fox mold and allowed the producers to take the project to ABC. Though broadcasters are ostensi- bly pursuing the same audience - adults 18 to 49, the key age bracket sought by advertisers - program- mers also appear to harbor narrower views of what will succeed on their channels. "What you're seeing is specific, clearer branding: a more defined vision of what might work on a net- work best. And from a studio point of view, you always want an opportuni- ty to see your producers' vision real- ized, no matter where it is," said Warner Bros. Television President Peter Roth, who - while overseeing the Fox network - cut "Two Guys" loose and gave the go-ahead to "Roswell." , Underscoring another factor that causes shows to move around, Fox fired Roth before he could order the program, leaving that decision to his successor. There can be advantages to having a network need to demonstrate just how badly it wants a series. With Fox hesitating about "Roswell's" future, the WB ordered a full season's worth of 22 episodes in advance - com- pared to the usual 13-installment commitment - and gave the series an attractive time slot. Jason Katims, the creator "Roswell," was on vacation when heard the news. of he "I went to sleep Thursday night thinking the show was going to be a midseason replacement or dead (at Fox)," he said. "By midnight Friday, it was on the WB in the fall, after 'Dawson's Creek.'" David Nutter, one of the executive producers of "Roswell," added that he prefers dealing with a network that "got" what the program was about. "A lot of times you sell the show and they say, 'OK, you've got to change this, and get rid of this actor.' (The WB) didn't do that at all," he said. Having once run the Fox network himself, Grushow conceded that pro- grammers face a risk when they let a property go to a rival. Indeed, "Roswell" figures to compete direct- ly with the new Fox drama "Get Real" for teen and young adult view- ers on Wednesday nights, which should provide a little extra rooting interest in that matchup. "That's why the decision has to be made at the highest levels of the company," Grushow said. 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