(EW.com) -- EW has confirmed that producers Mike Tollin ("Varsity Blues," "Coach Carter") and Glenn Rigberg ("Struck By Lightning") have obtained the rights to make a feature film biopic about Henry "Hank" Aaron, the baseball legend who broke Babe Ruth's decades-long career home-run record on April 8, 1974. This project has instantly become one of the hottest sports movie projects in Hollywood. Barry Levinson ("The Natural") is attached to direct, working with screenwriter Adam Mazer, who wrote Levinson's HBO biopic on Jack Kevorkian, "You Don't Know Jack," which Rigberg exec produced. Based on Howard Bryant's book "The Last Hero: The Life Story of Henry Aaron," the film will trace the two years from 1972 to 1974 during which Aaron chased, and bested, Babe Ruth's record -- an accomplishment that was met with both breathless media coverage as well as death threats.
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A biopic is being made about Henry "Hank" Aaron, the baseball legend
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Aaron broke Babe Ruth's decades-long career home-run record on April 8, 1974
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Aaron will consult on the film with producer Mike Tollin
The hope is to go into production next year, and release in 2014, in time for both the 40th anniversary of @placeholder's record, and the man's 80th birthday.