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.

In yet another case of similarly themed battling films, Variety reports that there's a new comedy on the way called Wild Cherry. This is just 11 days after we learned that Overture was going for the Freshly Popped story about a teen girl who is looking for the right guy to take her virginity. Did everyone see Juno and become inspired with thoughts about awkward teens having their first forays into sex?

Whatever the case, Rob Schneider, Tania Raymonde, Kristin Cavallari, Rumer Willis, and Ryan Merriman have signed on for the ensemble comedy, which was written by Chris Charney and will be directed by Dana Lustig. In this story, it's a bit less meat-factory hunting. Schneider is starring as the dad of a high school senior who is looking to give up her virginity to her football-kicker boyfriend. However, she then finds out that he's only dating her for his team's "bang book." Of course, that ends the talk of cherry popping, and she decides to get revenge. Taking a cue from the Greek play Lysistrata, the girl and her friends plan some payback, which I imagine means an all-out sex boycott for all of the "bang book" using jerks of the school.

It sounds like it could be a fun flick, a rarity for Schneider, but I still don't get this current cherry obsession. Regardless, the film heads to Winnipeg on May 7 to begin production.