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A sequel to 'Bull Durham'? Producer Thom Mount says it's possible

By Adam Harris

Jun 26, 2008

Thom Mount had no idea he had made the "best sports movie of all time" when his project "Bull Durham" hit theaters 20 years ago. 

All these years later, the movie he produced has stood the test of time and passed with flying colors. After all, Sports Illustrated continues to vote for "Bull Durham" over all other sports movies year in and year out. 

Classic lines from the flick still resonate in baseball clubhouses and dugouts from the little leagues to the bigs throughout the nation. While most fans of the movie have their favorite scene or favorite character, the producer of the film has memories of making the movie that any fan would love to hear. 

On Tuesday, Mark Thomas & Dave Rothenberg of 99.9 FM The Fan got the chance to hear about those memories first-hand as they spoke with producer Thom Mount.

One of the things they spoke about was the possibility of a sequel.

Check out a few of Mount's comments below, or hear his full interview.

On casting Crash Davis:  The truth of casting "Bull Durham" is that it was a nightmare. Kevin Costner was a friend of mine who'd already been in a smaller piece of work for me in California. I desperately wanted him to be the lead in "Bull Durham." ... The president of Warner Bros. said, "Kevin Costner can't act. The guy's not a movie star.  What are you doing?  Don't waste your time."

On the film's success:  The response was astonishingly good. The numbers were great.  More importantly, in our office in Los Angeles, letters started pouring in from people all over the country, particularly from women who identified strongly with Annie Savoy. ...  Had it been only a baseball movie we would have done some sort of business. But, because it was also a love story, it really allowed couples to go to the movie and have a great time.

On the city of Durham's involvement:  The mayor at the time, Wib Gully, went way out of his way to make various aspects of the city accessible to us. ... There's nothing better for a movie company than a couple of policemen in black-and-whites who have shut down one block of a street for 37 minutes while you get that shot you need that you wouldn't otherwise get because it's three days worth of paperwork to shut that block down. ...  People are friendly, people are supportive, you find wonderful locations. ... They helped us tremendously. Everybody helped.

On his favorite scene:  The "What I believe" speech of Kevin's. As you know, some of the language in that scene is a little salty for the general public.

On a possible sequel to" Bull Durham":  We always said to each other that we would do a sequel when we understood what happened to the characters in a way that gave a new story the same kind of depth that the first story had. So I will say that we are close to that, although maybe not quite ready to announce it.