Harrison Ford has officially signed on for the upcoming Jackie Robinson biopic, Legendary Pictures announced today.

As reported by TheWrap on Thursday, Ford will play Branch Rickey, the Major League Baseball executive who helped break baseball's color barrier by signing Robinson to a minor league in 1945, and helped Robinson sign to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, making him the first African-American player in the MLB.

In addition, Legendary has signed newcomer Chadwick Boseman in the role of Robinson. Boseman, who has appeared on Justified, Fringe and Castle, has just finished filming the lead role in the independent action movie The Kill Hole, in which he'll play Lt. Samuel Drake.

Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River) will write and direct the project, for which Legendary consulted with Robinson's widow, Rachel Robinson.

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