While audiences are discovering Kevin Costner‘s Horizon: An American Saga on Max, one of the actor’s most iconic films, Field of Dreams, is back in the spotlight as new details about a canceled television adaptation have come to light. Released in 1989, Field of Dreams starred Kevin Costner as a farmer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends and features the iconic line, “If you build it, they will come.” Field of Dreams was a box office hit and was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It has remained a beloved piece of pop culture and, in the early 2020s, was one of many beloved films looking to get remade as a television series.
The Puck, via SlashFilm, has reported thatthe scrapped Field of Dreams series that was in the works at Peacock was set to star Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt. Pratt had never previously been linked to the series before, and reportedly, he “abruptly” dropped out of the project. It is unclear why Pratt dropped out of the series. Pratt’s involvement in Field of Dreams likely would have saved the series, as it quickly fell apart and was dropped by Peacock following a full series order. Nobody picked it up while it was shopped to other networks.
If You Greenlight It…They Won’t Stream It
The road to the Field of Dreams television series was an interesting one. On August 12, 2021, MLB at Field Dreams took place, a specialty game held near the Field of Dreams in Iowa between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees. The popularity of the game immediately led to Field of Dreams soaring to the top of the rental charts. Five days after the game was held, it was announced that a Field of Dreams television show was in development at Peacock. It was set to be helmed by Mike Schur, who is best known for creating NBC series like Parks and Recreation and The Good Place. However, the buzz for the Field of Dreams series quickly fell off, and it was reported in June 2022 that Peacock had pulled the plug.
Pratt’s involvement with Field of Dreams certainly is a shock, but not one that is out of the realm of possibility. Pratt previously worked with Mike Schur on Parks and Recreation, and in 2023, Schur revealed the all-star cast he had lined up for the series that would have seen him reuniting with many actors who worked with him on past series. This included Kristen Bell and William Jackson Harper from The Good Place, Andre Braugher from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Nick Offerman, who co-starred with Pratt on Parks and Recreation. If the series had gone forward, it would have been dealt a devastating blow as actor Andrew Braugher passed away in December 2023.
Field of Dreams is just another example of the early streaming gold rush to greenlight television series based on mid-budget movies with the intention of making streaming exclusives. It was recently reported that Disney scrapped their plans for a series based on the Witch Mountain franchise starring Pratt’s Jurassic World co-star Bryce Dallas Howard. From Starz’s Dangerous Liaisons, Paramount+’s Fatal Attraction, Disney+’s Turner and Hooch, and Peacock’s Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin, the 2020s are filled with various short-lived attempts to revive mid-budget films as television series instead of the 1990s big budget film remake craze. As streamers start to tighten their belts, this short-lived craze might be dying down or at least done with less frequency than during the COVID-19 pandemic when it felt like streaming was the future.