Hot off earning his Academy Award for his supporting performance in CODA, Troy Kotsur has set up his next project with Disney.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor has signed on to star and executive produce the currently untitled Disney+ series that tells the true story of the 2021 Cubs Football team, where a Deaf team had an undefeated season and earned a spot in the California State Championship game for the first time in its school history. Kotsur will play Keith Adams, the team’s head coach.
The studio is bringing on someone who knows a thing or two about developing sports classics. Writer Ron Shelton, who penned one of the great sports films Bull Durham will write and direct the pilot. Ben Shelton (Candy Jar) will also write and executive produce. Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin (Coda) will also executive produce. Kevin Falls (The West Wing) will executive produce and will serve as showrunner.
Additional executive producers include Bert Salke (Alaska); Gary Foster (Sleepless In Seattle); Russ Krasnoff (Community); Rainn Wilson (The Office); Jack Jason, Bill Horberg (The Queen’s Gambit), and Christina Lurie (Persuasion). John Maucere (No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie) an alumnus of California School for the Deaf, Riverside, will consult and co-produce.
For those unfamiliar, Troy Kotsur is a deaf actor himself. His supporting role in the critically acclaimed film CODA earned him a number of accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics’ Choice Movie Award. He is the first deaf actor to win the latter three awards, and first deaf man and second deaf performer overall to win the former.