More than 15 years after his retirement from baseball, a Barry Bonds documentary is in production at HBO.
Deadline first reported the news on Wednesday, later announced by HBO. The untitled doc comes from the Words + Pictures production company, with 30 for 30 alums Ezra Edelman, Libby Geist, and Connor Schell serving as executive producers. Keith McQuirter will direct the feature.
Notably, Bonds is not involved in the doc yet, but the door remains open for him. Here’s the blurb about that from HBO’s release.
The filmmakers will include a diverse cast of influential figures from Barry Bonds’ life and career, and the opportunity for Bonds to actively participate and share his firsthand experiences remains available.
And here’s the official synopsis of the film.
The untitled HBO Sports Documentary will tell the story of Barry Bonds, baseball’s single-season and all-time home run king, from his beginnings as the son of All-Star Bobby Bonds, and godson of the iconic Willie Mays, all the way up to his meteoric rise in the 1990s and 2000s. Using archival footage and original interviews, the film will chronicle Bonds’ emergence as one of the game’s most talented all-around players with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants and then his years as a superstar with the Giants when he rewrote the record book in his late 30s amid controversy. All throughout, Bonds’ path to the doorstep of the Hall of Fame was an epic saga of sports, society, and culture in America.
The involvement of Edelman and Words + Pictures gives me hope for this one. McQuirter’s resume is shorter than his colleagues, but his work on the By Whatever Means Necessary docuseries was highly acclaimed. There’s plenty of potential in a comprehensive Bonds doc, and I’m hoping this project hits those heights.
[Deadline]
