BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The movie trailer for the Jackie Robinson biopic “42” is out, and Birmingham’s Rickwood Field figures prominently in the preview.

Several scenes from the movie were shot at Rickwood in May.

Look for the 102-year-old ballpark’s iconic center-field scoreboard just past the 1-minute mark in the trailer, and later, the Rickwood grandstands are visible in a shot of Robinson rounding third base and heading for home.

Chadwick Boseman stars as Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers great who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947, and Harrison Ford plays Branch Rickey, the Dodgers executive who hand-picked Robinson to integrate the game.

Bessemer native Andre Holland has a supporting role as Wendell Smith, the black sportswriter who ghost-wrote a column for Robinson, and Speake's Lucas Black plays Pee Wee Reese, the Dodgers shortstop who befriended his new teammate. Another Alabamian, Corner High School graduate Linc Hand, plays Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Fritz Ostermueller, who, in the movie trailer, is shown giving up a home run to Robinson.



In the movie, Rickwood doubles for Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, N.J., old ballparks that are long since gone.

In the opening sequence, though, which takes place when Robinson came to Birmingham as a member of the Negro Leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs in 1945, Rickwood appears as itself.

The movie, directed by Brian Helgeland of "L.A. Confidential," is scheduled to open next April.



Updated at 3:43 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, to include actor Linc Hand among the Alabamians in the film.

Email Bob Carlton at bcarlton@bhamnews.com