Press

Films:

MIRACLE 2004 – Directed by Gavin O'Connor

Gavin O’Connor and his team put you right there on the ice, and you find yourself wrapped up in the game, either for the first time or the hundredth, cheering at each body check, breakaway and goal indeed captures a heroic moment in sports history.”

-hollywood.com

“…immensely satisfying because of the way filmmakers (Gavin O’Connor and Charles Stone III respectively) connect sports to other themes”

-Steve Vineberg, The Christian Century

Miracle is about “believing in second chances.”

-Randy Williams, Hockey Digest

“Miracle’s most concrete achievement is in showing how, step by demanding step, Brooks was able to transform 20 young men used to playing as stellar individuals—the American way—into an unintimidate-able, egoless team, i.e., the Soviet way.”

-Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

 

TUMBLEWEEDS 1999 – Directed by Gavin O’Connor

“Zooma Zooma’s founder/executive producer Joseph Mantegna connected with O’connor through an associate Dan Stoloff, who served as DP on Tumbleweeds.  Mantegna said he was impressed with the movie when he saw it last year. 

‘I felt like I was watching real life, but without the trappings of a documentary, he said. O’Connor’s ability to ‘create a thing of beauty without a lot of money’ would also be an asset…”

-Susan Lin, Shoot

“The question is, How do you color outside its lines, give the story a little waywardness, while at the same time imparting to it the honest weight of felt experience?  The answer to that question may be: Keep it authentic, keep it modest, keep it hopping.  That’s what happens in Tumbleweeds; that’s what doesn’t happen in Anywhere but Here.” “…we have this movie—full of acceptant, sidelong glances at human quirkiness—to delight us”

-Richard Schickel, Time

THE SMASHING MACHINE 2002 Directed by John Hyams

“This graphic documentary takes an unflinching look at the world of no-holds-barred fighting and the modern-day gladiators who populate it through the eyes of Mark "The Smashing Machine" Kerr and his friend Mark "The Hammer" Coleman, two of the sport's most fearsome fighters.”

 

“With its conflicted, sympathetic hero, sexy-but-dangerous love interest, brute physicality, and dramatic story arc, The Smashing Machine plays like a neo-realist version of professional wrestling, with all the escapism and fantasy stripped away to reveal a bleak, Darwinian reality.”

-Nathan Rabin

“It is a non-fiction film that exposes the world of mixed martial arts fighting as a tough tenure of near indentured servitude where success or failure is merely a head-butt or knee smash away.”

“…a spellbinding documentary.”

“has a arc of triumph and redemption that manages to say positive and uplifting things about its subject without resorting to forced set-ups.”

-Judge Bill Gibron, DVD Verdict

THE SLAUGHTER RULE 2003 Directed by Alex and Andrew Smith

“Roy gets cut from his high school football team just days after his estranged father dies. For him, football is more than a proving ground; it is a promised escape from his lonely rural existence and salvation from the paralyzing passivity that dominates his life. Enter Gideon, a loner living on the roughneck fringe who is looking for "gamers"--kids who scrap hard--to play on his six-man football squad. Roy joins the Renegades, and he and Gideon enter into tenuous friendship that pushes the limits of male bonding.”

-Hollywood.com

Features in Development

PRIDE AND GLORY- Gavin O’Connor to direct

 “Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and Noah Emmerich are in negotiations to star in New Line's Pride and Glory, a generational drama about a family of police officers in New York torn apart by a corruption scandal.”

-Liam, Variety

“An exploration of the personal and professional lives of NYPD officers told through the interwoven lives of a three generation family of cops.  Their moral codes are tested when Ray Farrell, one of the three sons on the job, investigates a case that reveals an incendiary police corruption scandal involving his own brother.”

-Hollywood.com, <http://www.hollywood.com/movies/fulldetail/id/419474>

 

ELVIS AND ANNABELLE Written and to be directed by Will Geiger

“Tamblyn plays Annabelle, a beauty queen who wins the title of Miss Texas and then instantly drops dead on stage. LaBeouf plays a young Texan working at a mortuary who falls in love with Annabelle, who miraculously comes back to life on the embalming table.”

-thezreview.co.uk.com

“Based on a script by Will Geiger, "Elvis and Annabelle" tells the story of a beauty queen (Tamblyn) who dies on stage just seconds after being crowned Miss Texas. On the embalming table, though, she magically comes back to life and wins the heart of the mortuary worker (LaBeouf) who witnesses the miracle.”

-zap2it.com

“Tamblyn will co-star with 18-year-old Shia LaBoeuf ("Constantine") in the story of a beauty queen who wins the title of Miss Texas only to drop dead on stage and is resurrected on LaBoeuf's character's embalming table.”

-JAM! Movies

“Amber Tamblyn (ex-Emily) will be in yet another promising movie, called Elvis And Annabelle.”

-Carol Banks Weber, soapzone.com

SUPERHEROS Written and directed by Ed Radtke

“Three inner city kids spend their days skipping school, scheming and stealing video cameras from tourists. Longing for something more, the kids often fantasize about traveling to far off places and conquering evil. When the probation officer of one of the kids discovers their crimes the future of the 13 year old is in jeopardy.”

-hollywood.com

TV Shows:

CLUBHOUSE 2004

“Jeremy Sumpter, playing Pete Young, the 16-year-old batboy at the center of “Clubhouse,” and Dean Cain, as superstar Conrad Dean, are a winning double-play combo that should have fans returning to the stands.”

-Phil Gallo, Variety