Bad News Bears is a 2005 American sports comedy film directed by Richard Linklater, written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden and Sammi Kane Kraft. It is a remake of the 1976 sports film The Bad News Bears, produced by Paramount Pictures. Unlike the original film, it received mixed reviews and grossed just $34 million against its $35 million budget.

Billy Bob Thornton is an American film actor, filmmaker, singer and songwriter. He received international attention after writing, directing, and starring in the independent drama film Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. For his role in A Simple Plan (1998) he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is also known for his film roles in One False Move (1992), Dead Man (1995), U Turn (1997), Primary Colors (1998), Armageddon (1998), Monster's Ball (2001), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Bad Santa (2003), and Friday Night Lights (2004). He has written a variety of films including A Family Thing (1996) and The Gift (2000) and has directed films such as Daddy and Them (2001), All the Pretty Horses (2000), and Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012).