Wayne Gretzky is set to co-produce an upcoming biopic on Canadian golf legend Moe Norman. The hockey great and his wife Janet has joined a team that includes comedian David Steinberg ( Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You, Weeds ) and long-time film executive Robyn Todd to bring the story of the eccentric golfer to the big screen.
The biopic is expected to shoot next summer.
Norman, who was born in Kitchener, Ont., in 1929, was dubbed golf’s “Rain Man” for his mannerisms on the fairway with his “single plane swing” and is credited with inspiring such current players as Bryson DeChambeau .
“We live in this culture in which we celebrate celebrity and those who achieved at the highest level. Moe did not do that,” golf coach and author Tim O’Connor — author of The Feeling of Greatness: The Moe Norman Story — told CNN Sport earlier this year. “Moe was just this beautiful character. He was a very complicated person.
“And I think maybe if Moe came around in the last 20 years, maybe we would have embraced his eccentricities and he could have flourished a little bit more.”
Gretzky says Norman was a friend of his late father Walter .
“We first became aware of Moe through my father (Walter) who was his great friend and constantly shared incredible stories of this bigger than life character,” Gretzky said in a statement.
