NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt will be the subject of ESPN's next original movie, and the sports network is also working a film about disgraced baseball star Pete Rose.

Production on "3: The Dale Earnhardt Story" is scheduled to begin in the spring in either Charlotte, N.C., or Atlanta, ESPN announced Wednesday (Jan. 7) at the TV Critics Association press tour. The movie will chronicle the life and career of the seven-time Winston Cup champion, who was killed in a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500.

Robert Eisele ("Crime Story," "Resurrection Blvd.") wrote the script for "3," and Russell Mulcahy ("The Lost Battalion," "Skin") will direct. Orly Adelson ("Playmakers") is the executive producer. The movie is slated to premiere in late summer.

Five other movie projects are in various stages of development at the network. Furthest along is "Hustle: The Pete Rose Story," which has added timeliness with Rose's admission that he bet on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds in the 1980s. Rose, the all-time hits leader, was banned from the game in 1989 by then-Commissioner Bart Giamatti for gambling.

The movie will focus on that period, using a report on Rose's gambling by former MLB special counsel as its primary source material.

ESPN's other movie projects are "October Men," based on the Roger Kahn book about the 1977-78 New York Yankees; "Four Minutes," an account of Roger Bannister's quest to break the four-minute barrier in the mile, to be scripted by Sports Illustrated writer Frank DeFord; "The Bob Delaney Story," about an NBA referee and former undercover FBI agent; and "West Point Scandal," based on DeFord's SI story about a cheating scandal on the Army football team in 1951.