Baseball movie to be filmed at John O'Donnell Stadium
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By David Burke | Saturday, June 09, 2007 |
Jeremy Kipp Walker, left and Jamie Patricof of Single A Films announced plans to produce a full-length feature film in the Quad-Cities beginning in mid-August of this year. Filming will last about three weeks and will center around John O'Donnell stadium. Photo by Kevin E. Schmidt
Davenport’s John O’Donnell Stadium will become a movie set late this summer as award-winning filmmakers shoot an Iowa-based baseball story in the Quad-Cities.
The fictional drama, as yet untitled, will focus on a player from the Dominican Republic who, inspired by the famous movie “Field of Dreams,” wants to play minor league baseball in Iowa.
The riverfront stadium, Swing of the Quad-Cities players and their fans all will be represented in the movie, which begins pre-production in late July, with shooting here from mid-August through mid-September.
Co-producer Jamie Patricof said he and Jeremy Kipp Walker — working as Single A Films — looked at other minor league ballparks in Bloomington, Ill., Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Clinton in Iowa before deciding on Davenport.
“The great thing about this stadium is that it’s a great park, but it’s got an Iowa feel,” Patricof said. “It’s really kept that feel of a true minor league park, which is wonderful.”
Both men were producers of the movie “Half Nelson,” which landed Ryan Gosling a best actor Oscar nomination this year, as well as “Maria Full of Grace,” which won a best actress Oscar nomination for Catalina Sandino Moreno the previous year.
“We are kind of looking at ‘Maria’ as sort of a test-model for this film,” Patricof said. “There’s a big Spanish-language component with a Dominican baseball player.”
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, co-writers and co-directors of the movie, were also the co-writers of “Half Nelson,” which Fleck directed.
“Very early on in our research process, we made a trip out here and drove around,” Boden said. “We very quickly decided we wanted to set it in Iowa.”
Boden and Fleck, who are significant others, were inspired to write the story after reading articles about Dominican baseball players acclimating to the United States.
“It fascinated us — the journey of the Dominican player who barely speaks any English and doesn’t know the culture,” she said. “Not just the Dominican players who are in the majors and making millions of dollars, but the guys ... in the minor leagues and their specific journeys.”
Patricof and Walker said the casting has not yet been announced. There will be local casting for smaller roles in the film, and people will be needed at John O’Donnell for game scenes.
“We’re looking at a real sense of Americana in this film, showing minor league baseball,” Patricof said. “There have obviously been films, but this is a different look at minor league baseball.”
The Quad-City Development Group, as well as officials from the City of Davenport and Iowa Department of Economic Development were at the stadium for the announcement Friday afternoon.
The filmmakers said the support from the city was encouraging.
“Film is such a collaborative endeavor that you rely on that goodwill and that support to make it a success,” Walker said.
The producers hope to play the movie at film festivals, including the famous Sundance event in Utah, before a targeted release date of 2009.
“If we’re lucky, it’ll catch on nationally and internationally,” Patricof said.
The movie would be the first made in Iowa since the passage of a film incentives package last month that will give filmmakers a 25 percent income tax credit, based on expenditures of more than $100,000, for Iowa residents and Iowa companies. It also will allow Iowa companies and the people they hire to exclude the income from their state income taxes.
Although the film is being referred to as the “Untitled Dominican Baseball Player Project,” the online site Internet Movie Database says its working title is “Sugar,” a reference to the title character, Miguel “Sugar” Sanchez.
Patricof and Walker said they have several titles in mind but would not divulge them.
Fleck said he and Boden had a working title for the script but cannot reveal it.
“They’ve kind of put the muzzle on us,” Fleck said.
“We have our fingers crossed for the title we want,” Boden added.
David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
THE FILMMAKERS
The filmmakers of the untitled baseball movie have had some recent success.
Last year’s movie “Half Nelson,” starring Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling as a junior high teacher with a serious drug problem, was written by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck; Fleck was also the director. It was produced by Jamie Patricof. Jeremy Kipp Walker was a co-producer.
“Maria Full of Grace,” a 2005 drama starring Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno, was co-produced by Walker.
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