Zero, Zero … Action! Are You Ready for Pickleball Movies?

I’m not surprised to hear that there’s a new pickleball movie in the works. 

The movie project, disclosed in Variety, says actor Ben Stiller’s company will be producing a pickleball comedy named The Dink.

The feature-length movie will star actors Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen and Ed Harris, as well as retired tennis champion Andy Roddick, with Stiller playing a supporting role. 

The brief teaser on the script says that Johnson will play a former tennis prodigy who resorts to playing pickleball, even though he had formerly vowed to never play. He breaks the promise to himself in order to save a struggling club and to win the respect of his father, Variety wrote.

For the past few years, we devoted pickleballers have watched pickleball make inroads in pop culture as TV series (including The Golden Bachelor) began using pickleball courts as locations.

Also, TV ads for everything from beer to stock trading have portrayed actors playing pickleball. 

And three years ago, the live theater company started by actor Jeff Daniels in Chelsea, Michigan produced an original play entitled “Pickleball” that was written by Daniels and centered on characters playing pickleball. 

Daniels has credited his wife and her obsession with pickleball, which led to the construction of a court outside their home, to be the impetus for his play. 

As for movie projects, Stiller isn’t the first person to imagine that pickleball would provide a good setting for a comedic film.

Before Stiller came along, a California man named Dan Beeman, discovered pickleball after a car crash left him with a back injury. While going to a recreation center for yoga classes to help him heal from his injury, Beeman saw the courts there and became a pickleball ambassador and businessman who pitched construction of pickleball facilities at high-end communities that cater to American tourists in foreign countries.

Along the way, he had an idea for a movie script he called, Pickleball – the Movie, a pickleball-centered script that portrayed two washed-up tennis stars trying to revive their past glories and hustle some money by traveling around the country and playing in pickleball tournaments.

Naturally, we here at Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket would like to not only acknowledge the pickleball movie projects of others, but to come up with our own pickleball-themed movies in various genres. 

Here’s are eight pickleball movie scripts we’d like to see …

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Movie title: When Harry Met Sally’s Soft Game 

Synopsis: A man and woman try to stay friends without their pickleball partnership becoming an issue for them. 

Capsule review: I laughed, I cried, … I thought the scene of her screaming “Yes! Yes! Yes!” after making a well-placed third-shot drop went too far.

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Movie title: Drive Hard

Synopsis: A group of baseline-slamming terrorists take over open play at an indoor facility, leaving it to one man to stop their body-bagging terror.

Capsule review: I laughed, I cried, … I put it on my list of Christmas movies.

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Movie title: Get Out!

Synopsis: A young man plays pickleball against his girlfriend’s parents, learning to his horror that they’re trying to target him inside no-man’s land.

Capsule review: I laughed, I cried … I tried escaping to the kitchen line.

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Movie title: The Wizard of Ozempic

Synopsis: A classic story of an overweight player from the Midwest who goes on an unorthodox, hallucination-filled, weight-loss journey in order to level up one-half point on his DUPR score.

Capsule review: I laughed, I cried … I’m pretty sure you can’t get a “do over” after losing sight of the ball in a rainbow.

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Title: Weekend at Ernes

Synopsis: Documentary about players making themselves dead tired while trying to learn the trick shot that involves jumping diagonally across and beyond the kitchen area before hitting the ball.

Capsule review: I laughed, I cried … I saw lots of foot faults.

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Title: You Only Serve Twice

Synopsis: James Bond takes on an international ring of pickleball thieves who specialize in getting extra serves by cheating on the score.

Capsule review: I laughed, I cried … I wanted to get one of those paddles with the retractable darts.

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Title: Frozen 2

Synopsis: Documentary about an outdoor winter pickleball league in Duluth, Minnesota.

Capsule review: I laughed, I cried … I got tired of all the broken balls.

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Title: The Selkirk Identity 

Synopsis: CIA agent Jason Bourne struggles with amnesia as he tries to figure out why he bought so many pickleball paddles.

Capsule review:  I laughed, I cried … I wondered if it was possible to get both power and control in one paddle.

MURMURS FROM THE LOSERS’ BRACKET

Read past editions of Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket, including:

• It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane … It’s a Pickleball Zooming by My Head
• The Myth of “Open Play”
• You Get One Rule to Change in Pickleball: What is it?
• In a Pickle with Some Off the Cuff Remedies for Leg Cramps
• Partnering with a Giant: Hitting the Wall in Pickleball 
• Ten Things Not to Say on a Pickleball Court
• Oh, the Horror! Playing with a Pickleball Partner who won’t Move Up
• Not a Softie When it Comes to Pickleball with a Foam Ball
• Do Pickleball Prayers Get Answered?
• Ten Tips for Being “Nice” at Pickleball
• Attention Pickleballers: Be On The Lookout For “Ball Blowers”
• The Etiquette Crisis with “Open Play”
• Lob into the Sun? Maybe, Maybe Not
• Mastering the Diplomacy of Round-Robin Scheduling 
• Confessions of a Paddle Addict
  

Frank Cerabino is a long-time columnist for the Palm Beach Post in Florida, a pickleball addict like the rest of us, and a newly published author. Check out Frank’s newly released book, I Dink, Therefore I Am: Coming to Grips with My Pickleball Addiction (available on Amazon and a great read (or gift!) for any pickleball player), for pickleball tips and laughs!