Jason Bateman to Direct, Star in New Netflix Series After Ozark Success

Jason Bateman is taking another crack at making a hit Netflix series, after the major success he had with Ozark. Netflix and Bateman's Aggregate imprint combined to win a bidding war for "Daddy Ball," the Esquire magazine article written by Gauvey Herbert in 2021. "Daddy Ball" chronicled a 2010s incident where two Long Island fathers took a youth sports rivalry way too far, with both law enforcement and organized crime getting involved. If that doesn't sound like a tale for Jason Bateman to tell, what does? 

In the synopsis of what "Daddy Ball" is all about, Deadline writes: 

Determined not to follow in his detached father's footsteps, Bobby Sanfilippo found himself doing quite the opposite with his son. He became entangled in an epic travel baseball dad-on-dad rivalry with a man named John Reardon that led tabloids to call him "a Suffolk County Steinbrenner," "seriously sick," and one of the worst dads in youth-sports history. It starts in the world of little league baseball and expands into a BEEF-like war between two smalltime criminal fathers. Both Sanfilippo and Reardon have rap sheets of their own, but what went down in the summer of 2012 at Baseball Heaven will define them and their families forever. Stalking claims, threatening text messages, and an unwarranted arrest later, at the heart of it all, it's a story about the lengths fathers will go for their sons.

It's no coincidence that BEEF is getting name-dropped in that breakdown. Netflix had unexpectedly big returns in terms of viewership hours, as well as making a nice dent in the cultural conversation – for reasons both bad and good. However, in a time where the entire streaming industry is in flux, and no model for it is certain, BEEF and Ozark both represent cases of series with slow-burn crime story narratives, that seem perfect for Netflix's binge-watch model – especially now that the streamer is in the habit of breaking up seasons of its series into batch-style installments (or "parts"). 

"Daddy Ball" will not be the actual title that Netflix goes with, but it is said that it will be an 8-episode limited series. Jason Bateman will both direct and star in the series; Bateman will also executive-produce the show alongside Michael Costigan and David Klawans, for Aggregate. 

There is no firm timetable for the development of the "Daddy Ball" Netflix series.