Davenport-made 'Sugar' to premiere at Sundance

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By David Burke | Saturday, December 01, 2007 |

The Sundance Film Festival will get a taste of “Sugar” in January.

The famous Park City, Utah, festival — which was established by actor-director Robert Redford in 1988 — will have the world premiere of the baseball movie that was shot in the Quad-City region, predominantly at Davenport’s John O’Donnell Stadium, over the summer.

“We’re hoping to have a great reception with audiences and critics there,” co-producer Jeremy Kipp Walker said in a telephone interview Wednesday from his office in New York.

Walker and co-producer Jamie Patricof already have a track record at Sundance. “Maria Full of Grace” and “Half-Nelson,” in which both were involved with the production, had their debuts at the festival. That led to major studios acquiring the distribution rights, followed by Oscar nominations for each film.

“There’s a nice tradition of that with the company, but we’re just happy it’s been embraced,” Walker said.

As production wrapped up in the Quad-Cities during early September, Walker and Patricof talked about a possible 2009 release. But getting shown at Sundance will speed up the process, Walker said, with the possibility of a national release next summer or fall.

Anna Boden, co-writer and co-director along with Ryan Fleck, made it through the editing process more swiftly than the producers imagined, Walker said.

“She’s had a laptop on the road and is cutting as we go,” he added.

Shooting continued through last month in New York.

Doug Miller of Davenport, a field producer for the movie, said the Sundance honor is a feather in the cap of those in the area who were involved with the film.

“This is, I think, a credit to the people of the Quad-City region who helped make the film possible and all the great cooperation in production we got from the Quad-City Development Group, all the way through to the vendors and the workers and everyone here,” he said. “We’re very proud of them.”

The movie will officially be titled “Sugar,” Walker said.

Producers had to complete a 1,000-page “title report” with a summary of every creative work that had used the word “sugar” in the title, he said, and submit that to the Motion Picture Association of America. The title “Sugar” already was reported by the Web site Internet Movie Database when shooting was announced at John O’Donnell Stadium in June. Technically, the movie was known as the “Untitled Dominican Baseball Player Project.”

“Sugar” is about Miguel “Sugar” Santos, a teenager from the Dominican Republic who wants to play minor league baseball in Iowa after being inspired by the movie “Field of Dreams.” His minor league journey includes playing time with the Swing of the Quad-Cities. Area baseball players and fans were used in stadium scenes that were shot over several nights in September.

Newcomer Algenis Perez Soto, in his first movie, is impressive in the title role, Walker said.

“The movie starts out great and just gets better and better,” he said. “Algenis just does an amazing job and brings a real sensitivity to the role. Everything looks great.”

The 10-day Sundance event likely will include five screenings of the movie for festival goers and one for the media, he said.

Walker said he and the other filmmakers were hoping Sundance would be the place to launch the movie, and they were relieved to hear it had been chosen.

“We were hopeful of it,” he said. “It’s always a great feeling of excitement when it does happen. You can never call a shot like this.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.