David M. Evans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Mickey Evans (born October 20, 1962) is a screenwriter and film director. His films tend to be based around children and focus on the challenges of childhood. Evans is also a huge baseball fan and created The Sandlot based on his own memories of childhood and baseball.
Evans was born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania in 1962. In 1980 he moved to Los Angeles for college. He attended Loyola Marymount University and graduated with a film degree in 1984. He got his start writing action-thriller films, but found his niche in the 1990s with family oriented films that appealed to adults, children and critics alike.
He became one of the highest paid screenwriters during this time, selling both the screenplays to Radio Flyer and The Sandlot for over $1 million each. Radio Flyer was originally to be directed by Evans, but he was replaced by Richard Donner due to his inexperience. Re-shoots followed after poor test screenings and the film budget jumped from $15 million to $30 million. The original script called for more fantasy sequences involving a worm man and zombies. These ideas were scrapped when Richard Donner replaced Evans. Radio Flyer opened to mostly mixed reviews from critics while The Sandlot received much more positive reviews and better box office results. The Sandlot has remained a popular cult film. Evans wrote, directed and also was the narrator for the film, which still receives significant airtime on numerous television stations and in syndication.
Success for Evans became fleeting by the late 1990s, with films like First Kid and Ed bombing with critics and at the box office. Evans switched to more adult-oriented humor and material with After School Special, but didn't fare much better. Since then, he has written and directed numerous made for TV and direct to DVD films, including The Sandlot 2, the sequel to his popular film The Sandlot.
With his current film, The Final Season, about the fabled Norway, Iowa baseball team, which won an astonishing 20 state championships, advance word is that Evans is making a strong showing. The picture, which stars Sean Astin, Powers Boothe, Tom Arnold and Rachael Leigh Cook, world-premiered at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival to favorable responses and it's tentatively scheduled to open in October, 2007.
Evans currently lives in California, and has a son Griffin Reilly Evans who has been in a few of his films.
