EXCLUSIVE: Danny Ramirez, the actor known for roles in Top Gun: Maverick and the MCU, has locked cast and begun production on Baton, the soccer drama marking his feature directorial debut, in which he also stars.
Written by Ramirez, who played college soccer before launching his acting career, the film’s cast includes Maia Reficco (La Dolce Villa), Diego Calva (Babylons), Camila Mendes (Do Revenge), Mia Maestro (Motorcycle Diaries), Ester Expósito (Elite), Becky G (Blue Beetle), Noah Beck (Sidelined), and Lewis Pullman (Thunderbolts).
Baton follows a soccer player (Ramirez), relentlessly pursuing his dream of playing professionally, who threatens his relationship with his sister after he is kicked off the team and exiled back to Miami. As they battle over their mother’s legacy, he will stop at nothing to get another chance at soccer glory, even if it means losing the only family he has left.
Arriving as soccer takes center stage globally with the upcoming FIFA World Cup, the film’s producers include Victoria Alonso (Avengers: Endgame, Argentina, 1985) for Mapuche, Tom Culliver and Ramirez for the recently launched Pinstripes (Dead Man’s Wire) — which you can read more about above — Joshua Harris for Peachtree Media (We Bury the Dead, Mary), and Ford Corbett for Gramercy Park Media (The Shitheads, The Surfer). David Beckham and Nicola Howson are exec producing for Studio 99, alongside Carlos Delgado Zarco for Level Up, R. Wesley Sierk III for CaliWood Pictures, Nathan Klingher and Mark Fasano for Gramercy Park, Christopher Renteria, Harry Ahluwahlia, Elizaveta Chalenko, Carlo Salem, Carl Kawaja, Martin Romo, and Alex Tynion.
Gramercy Park’s strategic partner Manifest Pictures will handle international sales, introducing the project to buyers at EFM, with WME Independent and CAA overseeing domestic.
In a statement to Deadline, Ramirez shared, “Baton came from a very personal place. It’s a film about relentless ambition and the pursuit of greatness in the midst of tragedy. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and this film examines the humanity that exists within it. I couldn’t feel more privileged to tell this story along these incredibly talented artists.”
Added producer Alonso, “With the World Cup coming to the United States this year, and everything happening in Hollywood, there feels like no better gift than a movie about the world’s most popular game with a predominately Latin cast.”
Ramirez is represented by CAA, Anonymous Content, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Hanson, Jacobson, Teller; Reficco by CAA, Luber Roklin, and Yorn, Levine, Barnes; Calva by WME, Entertainment 360, Lumina, and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum; Mendes by CAA, Luber Roklin, and Hanson, Jacobson, Teller; Maestro by Paradigm and Untitled; Expósito by CAA and Brillstein; Becky G by WME, State of The Art, and Ziffren Brittenham; Beck by UTA, Underscore, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman; and Pullman by CAA and Anonymous Content.
