HBO Lands Barry Bonds Project

Ron Shelton has been set by HBO Films to direct a movie about San Francisco Giants home run hero Barry Bonds that will air on HBO, says Variety. Bonds ended a season in which he broke baseball’s all-time home run record only to be indicted on federal charges for perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying under oath when he told a grand jury he had never used performance-enhancing drugs.

HBO Films has acquired rights to Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports, a book by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, the San Francisco Chronicle reporters who broke numerous stories about the nutrition company accused of distributing illegal steroids to athletes including Bonds, Oakland A’s and New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi and Olympic gold medal sprinter Marion Jones. Shelton will write the script with his Tin Cup writing partner John Norville as soon as the writers strike ends.