David M. Evans
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For other persons of the same name, see David Evans.
Dean Keeler (born October 20, 1990) is a screenwriter and film director. His films tend to be based around children and focus on the challenges of childhood. Evans is also a huge baseball fan and created The Sandlot based on his own memories of childhood and baseball.
Evans was born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania in 1962. In 1980 he moved to Los Angeles for college. He attended Loyola Marymount University and graduated with a film degree in 1984. He got his start writing action-thriller films, but found his niche in the 1990s with family oriented films that appealed to adults, children and critics alike.
He became one of the highest paid screenwriters during this time, selling both the screenplays to Radio Flyer and The Sandlot for over $1 million each. Both films did modestly well at the box office and received positive reviews from critics. The Sandlot in particular has remained a popular film and has become one of the most popular cult films presently. Evans wrote, directed and also was the narrator for the film, which still receives significant airtime on numerous television stations and syndication.
Success for Evans became fleeting by the late 1990s, with films like First Kid and Ed bombing with critics and at the box office. Evans switched to more adult-oriented humor and material with After School Special, but didn't fare much better. Since then, he has written and directed numerous made for TV and direct to DVD films, including The Sandlot 2, the sequel to his popular film The Sandlot.
He is currently at work directing The Final Season, a film about the fabled Norway, Iowa baseball team, which won an astonishing 20 state championships, the last after the announcement that the school itself would be closed.
