Bradley Cooper to star in baseball dramedy

Disney has snagged an untitled baseball pitch from "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" scribe Allan Loeb with Bradley Cooper attached to star. Andrew Panay is on board to produce with Loeb and his Scarlet Fire Entertainment partner Steven Pearl.

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The dramedy centers on a baseball player who gets injured and has to go back to the minors where the only place he can find lodging is in a senior citizens' home. There, he meets an old baseball guru who helps lead him back.

Panay concocted the idea with his Panay Films development exec Adam Blum. Panay then took it to Pearl and Loeb as the trio had been looking for something to partner on. Loeb, whose career has been on fire since writing "Money Never Sleeps," took to the idea and carved time in his busy schedule to develop and create the story.

The project is said to be in the vein of "Scent of a Woman" and "The Rookie," the latter an inspirational sports drama starring Dennis Quaid that Disney released in 2002. The sale of the pitch shows that despite Disney's much-ballyhooed focus on brands and tentpoles, there appears to be room for movies with heart.

CAA-repped Loeb has several fires burning, having written "Cheaters," Universal's all-star dramedy being directed by Ron Howard now in production, and "Escape From New York," which is in development at New Line. He also wrote "The Switch," the Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy that opens in August.

Cooper, repped by CAA, is currently appearing in "The A-Team."