The Yasiel Puig story is about to go primetime.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, heavyweight producer Brett Ratner of the Rush Hour trilogy and X-Men films, has secured the rights to a Los Angeles magazine article that chronicles Puig’s escape from his native Cuba, eventual defection to America, and multi-million dollar rise in Major League Baseball and the Dodgers’ lineup.
No release date for Escape from Cuba: Yasiel Puig’s Untold Journey to the Dodgers has been penciled in, but the biopic is expected to highlight Puig’s repeated and exhaustive attempts to escape and how he ultimately became involved with a group of smugglers with ties to one of Mexico’s most ruthless drug cartels to finally get out of Cuba.
Even then, as the story goes, things were far from easy for Puig, as he was held in Mexico for some three weeks and endlessly threatened because the wealthy supporter who had set up his escape was slow to pay off the thugs who had actually pulled it off and were demanding $250,000 to let him walk.
Though Puig has since been rewarded with a seven-year $42 million contract from the Dodgers, his time in Hollywood has likewise been far from what you would call happily ever after. The 23-year-old star outfielder has been incessantly criticized for his effusive style, chastised over his flamboyant nature, and jailed for his reckless need for speed.
Just in the last year alone, Puig has been ticketed at least twice for driving more than 40 mph over the legal limit, prompting noted L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke to refer to him as “an accident waiting to happen.”
Through it all and somewhat amazingly, Puig has managed to largely keep his wits about himself between the chalk lines, hitting .319 with 19 homers in just over his first 100 games with the Dodgers.
