Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series director RJ Cutler says filming 'was a blast for baseball lovers' — interview

It might be the start of baseball season, but Apple TV plus is bringing the thrill of the Fall Classic to life anew in the new three-part docuseries Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series. What to Watch talked with Emmy-winning director RJ Cutler (Martha, Elton John: Never Too Late) about bringing the epic story between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees to life [check out our Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series review].

Bringing the World Series to life as a film isn't a new concept. "The World Series film goes back to World War Two," Cutler explained. "The US government asked Major League Baseball to do a World Series film for the overseas soldiers so they could experience the World Series. And that's what the World Series film was." Eventually, films gave way to VHS and DVD copies that would be available in time for Christmas.

"Major League Baseball realized that there's an opportunity for there to be a real film here, a three-part film," he continued.

MLB reached out to Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, who in turn reached out to Cutler's production company, Filmworks, to see if he was interested in directing. It was a very easy ask of the lifelong Mets fan. "There was no arm twisting necessary," he laughed.

MLB's vision was clear: "To make it as cinematic as possible. Character driven, emotional, dramatic and beautiful, to really highlight the beauty of the sport."

The monumental challenge in the film crew's mission came with figuring out how to establish relationships with players when there's no way of knowing which teams will end up playing in the Fall Classic.

"We knew from moment one that it was going to be about the World Series," Cutler explained. That was the only constant throughout the process, because as he notes, "you don't know until a day or two before the World Series who's going to be in the series."

That meant Cutler and his crew had to build rapport with every team in the league. "We started shooting during the NLCS and ALCS, but we did that to develop the relationships." Cutler understood that there was no way to show up and expect players to open up to them, so that meant hitting the road early on in the season.

"All season long, we were developing the relationships," he said. "We were visiting teams. We went down to San Diego. Our office is 20 minutes from Dodger Stadium. I went to New York a bunch of times and had lots of Zoom meetings with all the front offices. People knew what we were up to and what we were trying to do: redefine the what the World Series film could be."

Once the Dodgers and the Yankees claimed their respective pennants, it was off to the races for the documentary team. "It required us to be incredibly deft and on our toes and ready to imagine the hotel reservations and the plane tickets, because you're not going to be able to get a hotel room the day before the World Series. And it's not a hotel room, it's 60 hotel rooms," he said, highlighting the size of his large crew.

Not only that, Cutler added that his crew only had about 12 weeks to turn the project around after the conclusion of the World Series. "So there were a lot of edit rooms going on, but it was incredibly fun. It was a blast for baseball lovers."

When it came to filming the World Series itself, Cutler noted that "there were so many twists and turns and complexities to the series that in many ways it was the gift that kept on giving."

The Dodgers ended up winning the World Series 4-1, with the Yankees pulling off a must-win victory in Game 4 to force Game 5. "4-1 in terms of the outcome is incredibly misleading," Cutler noted. "This series, the only blowout was the Yankees win. The rest of the games, three out of the other four games, the Yankees easily could have won with one swing of the bat and then the series would've gone the other way."

As a documentarian, it made for an incredible filming experience. "It was incredibly close, and that's the heartbreak of it. And so much of that hinged on Aaron Judge's slump and Freddie [Freeman] coming out of [his injury] and [Shohei] Ohtani's injury."

At the end of the night, Cutler and the production crew would gather in the bar at the end of the night to share what everyone saw and learned. "It would be midnight or so by the time we wrapped and we'd all get together and talk about it. There were 30 or 40 people and we would talk about what did we see? What did we learn from the players? What did we learn from the fans? What do we think's going to happen tomorrow? Who's pitching? What's happening with Ohtani? All of it."

Cutler's crew was preparing for Game 6 just in case. "We were making plans to go back to Los Angeles in the fifth inning of Game 5, like everybody else at Yankee Stadium." Cutler laughed and said that's why the World Series is so different from other championships. "Truly anything is possible until the 27th out."

All three episodes of Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series are available to stream on Apple TV Plus.