The film, based on Jonathan Eig's 2006 biography "Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig," will be directed by Jay Russell, whose other feature credits include "My Dog Skip" and "Ladder 49." ...

Gehrig delivered a farewell speech now known as the "Luckiest Man Alive" speech to Yankee Stadium fans in 1939, two weeks after he was diagnosed with ALS, in an event labeled Lou Gehrig Day.