Tobey Maguire Saddles Up For 'Seabiscuit'

[Monday, August 5th, 2002]
Tobey Maguire has signed a deal worth $12 million or more to play the jockey atop the horse that became a fabled figure during the Depression, in "Seabiscuit," reports Variety.

Gary Ross adapted Laura Hillenbrand book "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" and will direct this fall for Universal.

Maguire, set to play jockey Red Pollard, will also come aboard as exec producer; Ross' Larger Than Life is producing with Kennedy-Marshall. Pic will be released in winter 2003.

"There was an incredible toughness and sensitivity to Red that few people could capture, and Tobey is uniquely capable of doing that," Ross said.

Ross is getting another Hall of Fame jockey, Gary Stevens, to play jockey George Woolf, a Pollard pal who took Seabiscuit's reins in his most famous race, a match against seemingly unbeatable War Admiral.

Other roles yet to be cast are Seabiscuit's eccentric owner, Charles Howard, and the horse's trainer, Tom Smith.

Ross has scouted and set filming at horse tracks from Santa Anita to Saratoga.

Maguire's reps at Gersh, Industry and attorney Steve Warren have been aggressively intent on riding Maguire's "Spider-Man" momentum to get him up to the $15 million per pic mark. He had been circling "Seabiscuit" along with such pics as Warner Bros.-based "Urban Townies" before choosing the horse racing pic.

Word was that he'll hit that $15 million mark easily when perks and performance bonuses are counted, but studio sources maintain that the salary was closer to $12 million. It is still a good haul for Maguire, who will be paid in the neighborhood of $35 million total for the three "Spider-Man" pics he's pacted to topline.

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