The Latest Sports Tear-Jerker: '5th Quarter'

Sports. Aside from being a Huey Lewis and the News album, it's a slice of life that has lived for a long time in contradiction. On the one hand, there's the cud-chewing, testosterone-laden toughness of actual sporting events. On the other, there's the ever-rampant tears pouring out of sports dramas and biopics -- and now we're getting one more ...

But unlike pics that raise you up to a teary conclusion, this new feature looks like it will be a heart-tugger from the get-go. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Ryan Merriman and Aidan Quinn have signed on, with Andie MacDowell in final negotiations, for a new sports drama called The 5th Quarter. Based on a true story, the film centers on the way a young man deals with his brother's death. Basically, after 15-year-old Luke Abbate died in a car crash, his organs were donated to five people. In the wake of this tragedy, his brother (Merriman) got his football jersey changed to his brother's number (5) and then held up five fingers before the fourth quarter of each game, while his parents (Quinn and MacDowell) sat in section 5. See? Tear jerker -- one that might even require more than five tissues.

5th Quarter will also be a film that blends real life with fiction, not in the script, but in the cast and scenes -- the family's pastor is playing himself in the film, and real footage of the games will be edited into the film. Whether this will help or distract from the final product remains to be seen. Production begins this month.