<figure id="attachment_372476" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-372476" style="width: 3132px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="726e6c8c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/05/8c31b82920ec02e5adf0777a8894c775-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-372476" class="wp-caption-text">The illegal gambling problem of the suspect Ippei Mizuhara (right) has been announced to be dramatized in Hollywood. What does the victim, Shohei Otani, think? &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<p> Shohei Ohtani&#8217;s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, has reached a plea deal after pleading guilty to bank fraud and other charges, U.S. federal prosecutors announced today.</p>
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<p> Mizuhara was facing up to 33 years in prison for bank fraud and other charges, but the plea deal will reduce his sentence, which is expected to be handed down several months after his arraignment in a Los Angeles court on May 14 (local time).</p>
<p> Meanwhile, it was learned that Mizuhara&#8217;s series of scandals will be made into a TV drama in the United States. Lionsgate, a major U.S. production company, announced on September 9 (local time) that it is planning to make the series into a TV series.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Lionsgate has produced the &#8220;Twilight&#8221; series, which depicted the love romance between a vampire and a high school girl and became a huge hit, the &#8220;Expendables&#8221; series starring Sylvester Stallone, and the horror film series &#8220;Saw&#8221;.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> It is also known as a major U.S. production company that has distributed &#8220;La La Land&#8221; (&#8217;16), which won six Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Emma Stone and Best Director for Demian Chazelle,&#8221; said a reporter for a women&#8217;s magazine.</span></p>
<p> Soon after the Los Angeles Times and ESPN reported the news that Mizuhara, Otani&#8217;s former interpreter and manager, was suspected of stealing $17 million (about 2.65 billion yen) from Otani&#8217;s account to pay off a huge illegal gambling debt, the Los Angeles Times and ESPN, the U.S. sports channel, reported that the defendant was in the process of developing a TV series. The Los Angeles Times and ESPN, a U.S. sports channel, reported the news of the alleged theft.</p>
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<p> Producer Scott Delman, known for his work on the popular U.S. drama &#8220;Station 11,&#8221; and Albert Chen, former editor of Sports Illustrated magazine and author of a book about gambling companies, have teamed up to write the script. It is still in the early stages, with a title yet to be determined.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The major scandal has already been dramatized..."></div>
<p>The Mizuhara scandal stands as the biggest sports betting scandal in MLB since 1989, when star player Pete Rose, who held the record for most MLB appearances and other records, was permanently banned for involvement in baseball betting while manager of the Cincinnati Reds,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8216;At the center of it all is a superstar. . gets to the heart of the story of trust and betrayal, the trappings of wealth and fame.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> It will be a drama series.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> The Dodgers are unlikely to cooperate with or allow Otani or the Dodgers to dramatize the story, so it will be a fictionalized drama based on a true story, with its own original reporting. In any case, most of the characters, including Otani and Mizuhara, will have real names.</span></p>
<p> In Hollywood, there are several films such as &#8220;Sea Sed, Expose the Name&#8221; (&#8217;23), which depicts the activities of two female reporters from the New York Times who broke the story of sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein, a former big-time producer, and &#8220;The Story of Robert Oppenheimer,&#8221; which is based on the novel of the American physicist who led the development of the atomic bomb. The film depicts the glory and downfall of Robert Oppenheimer, the U.S. physicist who led the development of the atomic bomb, and swept a total of seven Academy Awards this year, including Best Picture, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), and Best Actor (Killian Murphy).</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The Pete Rose case was also made into a TV movie as &#8220;Pete Rose, the Fallen Blowhard&#8221; (&#8217;04) starring Tom Sizemore. The &#8220;Ferrari&#8221; movie (July 5), starring Adam Driver, depicts the turbulent year of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, the &#8220;King of Formula One. In 1996, a 36-year-old female teacher was sentenced to prison for having an affair with a 13-year-old boy, but she gave birth to a baby in prison and married him after she was released from prison.</span><span class="strongInContent"> The Truth About May Decembers&#8221; (July 12) will be released in Japan in the near future.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The Mizuhara case is also based on a huge theft case involving a former interpreter for Otani, a two-sport superstar since Babe Ruth, so it is not hard to imagine that Hollywood has jumped on the case.</span></p>
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<p> What kind of drama will it turn out to be? Who will play the roles of Otani and Mizuhara, and what will become of this unprecedented drama series?</p>


 He currently writes articles on entertainment, movies, and Hollywood information for the web magazine "PlusαToday" and other publications. Member of the Japan Film Pen Club<br />.<br />


 Ryo Sakamoto (Writer, former head of the Culture and Society Department of "Tokyo Sports Newspaper")

 Kojiro Yamada

 Ippei Mizuhara, a defendant facing up to 33 years in prison for bank fraud and other crimes, has announced that his story with Shohei Otani, who spent more than 2.6 billion yen in illegal gambling, will be dramatized in Hollywood. ......

Hollywood’s “true crime” boom behind the dramatization of the Ippei Mizuhara case.

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