After being drafted out of high school by the Detroit Tigers in 2009, Appel elected to attend Stanford University and play for the Stanford Cardinal baseball team. Named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's Pitcher of the Year in 2012, he was projected as the first overall draft choice in the 2012 MLB draft, but fell in the draft due to signability concerns
The Houston Astros selected him with the first overall pick in the 2013 MLB draft, and he signed with them. Appel was traded to the Phillies after the 2015 season. After continued struggles, he was designated for assignment by the Phillies on November 20, 2017.
Directed by Ol Parker (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Mama Mia! Here We Go Again), the Ticket to Paradise follows Roberts and Clooney as they fly to Bali in order to stop their daughter (Kaitlyn Dever) from marrying a local boy (Maxime Bouttier) and making the same mistake they believe they made by marrying each other.
They also appeared in 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven, 2002’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, 2004’s Ocean’s Twelve, 2007’s Ocean’s Thirteen, and they were both in the 2011 documentary His Way about the life of legendary movie producer Jerry Weintraub. Clooney also produced 2013’s August: Osage County, in which Roberts co-starred.
Roberts and Clooney also served as producers on Ticket to Paradise alongside Lisa Roberts Gillan, Sarah Harvey, Grant Heslov, Deborah Balderstone, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Marisa Yeres Gill. The film hails from Working Title Films, Smokehouse Pictures and Red Om Films, with distribution by Universal Pictures.