Legends never die: 20th Century Fox is currently in development on a Sandlot Prequel, which, for a generation of kids who grew up in the 90s, may just be the greatest baseball movie ever made. David M. Evans, who wrote and directed the original movie, is on board to help develop the project and pen the screenplay for Fox. Evans will be working alongside writer Austin Reynolds on the script.

Unfortunately, there are no story details available right now but this will take place prior to the events of the original movie, which took place in 1962 and centered on a young group of kids who lived to play baseball. A young kid moves to town named Scott Smalls and befriends The Sandlot gang, who teach him about the sport they love so dearly. Things get tricky when they lose Smalls' stepfather's ball that is signed by Babe Ruth to The Beast, a giant English Mastiff, that is the stuff of legend. According to Deadline, this prequel could further explore the legend of The Beast.

The cast of the original Sandlot movie includes Tom Guiry (Smalls) Mike Vitar (Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez), Patrick Renna (Ham), Chauncey Leopardi (Squints), Victor DiMattia (Timmy Timmons), Marty York (Yeah-Yeah), Shane Obedzinski (Repeat), Grant Gelt (Bertram Grover Weeks), Brandon Quintin Adams (Kenny DeNunez) and James Earl Jones (Mr. Mertle). It's quite possible that this prequel would bring back Mr. Mertle in his younger years with a new actor coming in to play the part. Beyond that, it's likely we'll be seeing a different group of young kids playing baseball and enjoying the summer while avoiding The Beast.

The Sandlot, which was a hit for Fox at the time of its release, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Fox re-released the movie on Blu-ray and has seen revival screenings cropping up around the country to honor the occasion. This prequel is being developed as Disney's purchase of the majority of Fox looms. The studio is operating with a business as usual mindset, developing projects as they see fit, until the Mouse House actually assumes control. It's unclear how Disney will handle the slate of projects in development when/if they actually take over, but this seems like the kind of thing that could do very well for them, so it's doesn't seem likely to get the ax even when the merger is completed.

Two home video sequels were previously produced; 2005's The Sandlot 2 and 2007's The Sandlot: Heading Home. Having David Mickey Evans back on board is likely assuring to fans. As for Austin Reynolds, his script From New York to Florida landed on the Black List in 2016, which is a list of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. There's no word currently on whether or not Evens would also return to direct, should the project wind up moving forward. We'll be sure to keep you posted as more details make their way online. This news comes to us courtesy of Deadline.