A television project about the gambling scandal surrounding Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, is in development by Starz, an industry source confirmed to The Athletic on Tuesday.

The Lionsgate TV project will focus on Mizuhara’s gambling scandal, which led to his firing by the Dodgers and accusations from Ohtani’s representatives that he stole millions from the four-time MLB Most Valuable Player to pay off his gambling debts. Mizuhara was convicted of defrauding Ohtani and sentenced to 57 months in federal prison in February. The show will also explore Mizuhara and Ohtani’s relationship, which dates back to Ohtani’s rookie season at age 18 with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.

Alex Convery, who was the screenwriter for the 2023 film “Air” about Nike’s Michael Jordan brand, is set to serve as showrunner and writer. Justin Lin, who directed “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” will direct the show. Sportswriter Albert Chen is a co-executive producer.

Ohtani brought Mizuhara with him as his interpreter when he signed with the Los Angeles Angels in 2017. He also caught some of Ohtani’s bullpen sessions and served as his catcher during the 2021 Home Run Derby. Former Angels manager Joe Maddon told Kyodo News in 2021 that the two went together like “peanut butter and jelly.”

But Mizuhara had a significant gambling addiction; his lawyer later wrote that his client had struggled with “gambling dependence” since he was 18. Between December 2021 and January 2024, Mizuhara placed approximately 19,000 bets online through bookie Mathew Bowyer.

The interpreter gambled more than $300 million and was nearly $41 million in debt. Mizuhara was fired from the Dodgers in March 2024 and was formally charged a month later.

In January 2025, The Athletic obtained a voice recording from the Department of Justice that showed Mizuhara attempting to push through a $200,000 wire transfer from one of Ohtani’s accounts. The recording, which assistant U.S. attorney Jeff Mitchell said was obtained from a bank, was filed to back up the prosecution’s claims that Mizuhara repeatedly called the bank to arrange wire transfers, having bypassed security measures by routing Ohtani’s online account information to his own email and phone number.

“Who am I speaking with?” a bank agent asked in the clip.

“Shohei Ohtani,” Mizuhara said.

Less than two months after ESPN broke the initial news in March 2024 of Mizuhara’s stealing millions of dollars to pay off his gambling debts, Lionsgate announced it was developing the project.

“This is Major League Baseball’s biggest sports gambling scandal since Pete Rose, and at its center is its biggest star, one that MLB has hitched its wagon on,” Chen said in a 2024 Hollywood Reporter article. “We’ll get to the heart of the story — a story of trust, betrayal and the trappings of wealth and fame.”

Now, with more details emerging about the scandal and Mizuhara sentenced to prison, the show will be loaded with potential storylines. It’s unclear when the show will release or who the cast will be.