The Pete Frates story is going to be a movie.
The Globe has learned that Netflix is developing a feature film about Frates, a former Boston College baseball captain and longtime ALS crusader. Academy Award winner Casey Affleck has signed on to produce the film with Alison Greenspan (“If I Stay”, “The Best of Me”).
Frates, MVP of the baseball Beanpot when he homered against Harvard at Fenway Park in 2006, lives in Beverly and was diagnosed with ALS in the spring of 2012. His promotion of the Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 triggered a viral craze that raised more than $200 million to fight amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
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Related: Stricken with ALS, Pete Frates shows the will to live
Frates and his wife, Julie, have a 4-year-old daughter, Lucy. Pete’s parents, John and Nancy, and siblings have been champions of ALS awareness and fund-raising over the last six-plus years.
The script for the upcoming film will be written by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage and is based on the 2017 book, “The Ice Bucket Challenge,” penned by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge. The family is hopeful that Frates will be played by Affleck.
“We’d be thrilled to have a real Bostonian and a good-looking guy play Pete,’’ said John Frates.
Related: A lasting honor for Pete Frates
“The story of our family is one of love and inspiration and we are humbled to share it with the world,” Nancy Frates said Wednesday. “We are thrilled to have Casey Affleck involved in the project. Pete is as Boston Strong as anyone and to have Boston accurately portrayed in this project is important. The community of Boston and Massachusetts has been by our side throughout this journey.”
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The Frates family will be in New York City Friday to ring the bell at the NASDAQ Stock Market to honor the launch of the Frates Family Foundation nonprofit for home healthcare for progressed ALS patients, and to celebrate the formation of the Healey and AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Related coverage:
■ Boston salutes Pete Frates as a global inspiration
■ St. John’s Prep dedicates baseball field to Pete Frates
■ Inspired by Pete Frates, MLB announces ALS fund-raising campaign
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @dan_shaughnessy.