ESPN Films acquires The Lost Son of Havana.

ESPN has acquired the TV rights to the 2009 Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival selection The Lost Son of Havana for its ESPN Films division. Directed by Jonathan Hock (Through the Fire, The Streak) and produced by the Farrelly Brothers (There’s Something About Mary, Fever Pitch) and Kris Meyer, the documentary gives viewers a first-hand look at Cuban pitcher Luis Tiant’s emotional return to Cuba after 46 years of exile and 19 seasons playing professional baseball for the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians. English- and Spanish-language versions of the film will be televised in August, 2009 on ESPN and ESPN Deportes, with additional details forthcoming.

“We could not have selected a more captivating story for our first Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival acquisition than The Lost Son of Havana,” said Clinkscales. “It’s our goal to bring our audience a steady stream of exciting and compelling projects that aim to both enlighten and entertain. Jon Hock and the Farrelly Brothers have done just that.”

Bobby and Peter Farrelly said, “The Lost Son of Havana is a story about El Tiante’s need to go home. We are ecstatic that our film has found its own home with our good friends at ESPN.”

Hock added, “I grew up playing wiffle ball, trying to pitch like Luis Tiant. He was the best-loved player in baseball, during the last era when the game was pure and we believed our heroes were playing just for the love of it. Traveling with him to Cuba, I discovered he was also playing for the love of his father, a Cuban and Negro League legend he had to leave behind. Though Luis never won a World Series and isn’t in the Hall of Fame yet, I think ESPN’s viewers will see what a champion Luis truly is.”

Luis Tiant’s career spanned from the 1960s to the 1980s where he was an All-Star, a record-setter, and ultimately, a Red Sox legend. His unique twisting, hesitating, back-to-home-plate delivery was imitated on ball fields all over New England and beyond. And his performance in the 1975 World Series captured the hearts of the fans forever: two wins, including a shutout in Game 1 against baseball’s greatest lineup, bringing the Red Sox as close to a championship as they’d been in nearly 60 years.

Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Chris Cooper (Adaptation, Breach), Lost Son of Havana offers a rare inside look at present day Cuba and its people as a 67-year-old Tiant returns to the place of his childhood. During his time there, he confronts once and for all the long-simmering feelings of love and loss he has for his family, his former teammates and the country he left behind.