(From InsideLacrosse Blog)
http://blogs.insidelacrosse.com/2009/01/30/qa-marty-dugard-warrior-screenwriter-and-exec-producer/
MD: The story is a coming of age tale told through lacrosse. It follows Conor Sullivan (played by 90210’s Kellan Lutz), a west coast hotshot whose dad is in the marine corps. And he’s recalled to Iraq, but rather than leave the family in the west coast, he moves them back to his family home in Maryland. His son ends up going to the same prep school he went to and plays for one of his former teammates who is the coach there.
But everything falls apart for the kid. Instead of the hotshot, he’s still a good player, but one of many on the east coast. He can come to terms with it and things go to hell in a hand basket.
Adam Beech plays a friend of the father’s who is Native American and he steps in to help make things right.
We shot part of it on Onondaga reservation in upstate New York. He teaches him the old ways of lacrosse — the curator’s game. No pads, no helmets, wooden sticks. Teaches him humility and pushes him.
Eventually, the kid goes back home to make things right.
JB: How did the idea for this film come about?
MD: I was sitting on the sidelines at my son’s lacrosse practice. He just graduated from HS and I was sitting on the sidelines talking with the other dads and we lamented there had never been a movie dedicated to lacrosse, especially at a time when it’s the number one fastest growing sport among the youth demographic.
And I had written a number of books and dabbled in film and TV, so I sat down to write a script.
My agent took it to Paramount and they wanted to buy it, but they wanted to make it a soccer movie and make the lead character a girl.
But the son’s name was Conor, which is my son’s name and the character wears number nine, like my son.
Like every good writer I wanted to put personal stuff in it and that goes out the window if you sell. So we decided to make it ourselves.
MD: We were in Pasadena last week, but now we’re at College of the Canyons (north of L.A.). We’re shooting the big championship sequence there and it’s been cold and long nights. We’ve been shooting through the night.
MD: If you look at College of the Canyons, and you’ve seen it in so many movies probably, the field is surrounded by pine trees. It doesn’t have a west coast look to it. It looks like it could be anywhere on the field.
laxbuzz
