HarveyWallbangers
06-04-2006, 12:17 AM
Hopefully, it will done well.
Fan's quest for Packers tickets drives plot of 'Cheeseheads'
Planned film could kick off a surge in state productions
By RICK ROMELL
rromell@journalsentinel.com
Posted: June 3, 2006
Like so many epic tales, it's the story of a quest - in this case, a man's struggle to get season tickets for the Green Bay Packers.
The hero is Eddie, a die-hard green-and-gold fan who is a lowly 22,000-something in the slow-moving line for the coveted Lambeau passes. Denied entry to the hallowed ground, Eddie and his slightly off-center friends for the last 10 years have gathered in the stadium parking lot to tailgate, celebrate all things Packer and watch every game on TV.
Football ultimatum
Then, a crisis. Eddie's pregnant wife, weary of football widowhood, lays down an ultimatum: Eddie has one weekend to secure his season tickets or forever abandon his dream.
So winds the plot of what, if a once-high-flying Hollywood producer and his financier succeed in their quest, will be a made-in-Wisconsin movie called "Cheeseheads."
The production, in turn, could kick off what film-industry proponents here hope will be a surge in Wisconsin-based movie-making, boosted by a package of recently enacted financial incentives.
John Daly, who in the 1980s produced such movies as "Platoon," "Hoosiers," "The Terminator" and "The Last Emperor," is trying to get "Cheeseheads" made. Working with him is Anton Nel, a South African-turned-Californian film financier.
Daly said the script for "Cheeseheads" gave him the same feeling as "Hoosiers," the feel-good story of a tiny Indiana high school and its down-on-his-luck coach who triumph in the state basketball tournament.
"This is family, this is love story, this is comradeship," he said of "Cheeseheads." "This is an ordinary person's dreams. And it's rather touching that these people who come from a sort of mundane background really don't dream of going to Monaco or some other resort where they would mingle with the rich. Their only desire is to be able to get in and see the Green Bay Packers."
A Marquette connection
Nel, for his part, described "Cheeseheads" as a " 'Fargo' meets 'The Full Monty' kind of story."
The screenplay was written by Kenwood Youmans, a Los Angeles native who was struck by Packers culture while attending Marquette University during the early '90s.
" 'Cheeseheads' is kind of my ultimate love letter to Wisconsin," he said.
Daly said the film would be shot in Green Bay and cost about $10 million to make.
"We have the funding in place," he said. "All that is waiting is permission from the NFL."
That's a hitch. The National Football League guards its image tightly and seldom allows movie-makers to use such things as the names of its teams and their logos, Youmans said.
But he said there are ways around NFL permission, such as avoiding use of game footage and referring to the team as "Green Bay" rather than "the Packers."
It's been a long time since Daly had a hit movie. The firm he once headed, Hemdale Film Corp., was a leading independent movie company during the '80s but, pressed by creditors, went through bankruptcy reorganization in the 1990s.
Daly blamed the bankruptcy on the financial stress Hemdale's chief lender, Credit Lyonnais, experienced in trying to take over MGM.
Daly now is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Film and Music Entertainment Inc., a Los Angeles company whose penny stock trades over the counter. It closed Friday at 65 cents a share.
Youmans is confident about the financial prospects for "Cheeseheads."
"I know it would make its money in Wisconsin alone," he said.
Also confident is Daly, whose career has seen him not only produce many movies but help promote the legendary 1974 fight in Zaire, in which Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman to regain the heavyweight title seven years after he had been stripped of the crown for refusing induction into the U.S. Army.
"It was a sad time," Daly said of the unraveling of Hemdale, "but I'm back. I'm making films and producing films and directing films. The film business is mercurial. You're up, you're down, but you must never be out. And I learned that from Muhammad Ali."
Fan's quest for Packers tickets drives plot of 'Cheeseheads'
Planned film could kick off a surge in state productions
By RICK ROMELL
rromell@journalsentinel.com
Posted: June 3, 2006
Like so many epic tales, it's the story of a quest - in this case, a man's struggle to get season tickets for the Green Bay Packers.
The hero is Eddie, a die-hard green-and-gold fan who is a lowly 22,000-something in the slow-moving line for the coveted Lambeau passes. Denied entry to the hallowed ground, Eddie and his slightly off-center friends for the last 10 years have gathered in the stadium parking lot to tailgate, celebrate all things Packer and watch every game on TV.
Football ultimatum
Then, a crisis. Eddie's pregnant wife, weary of football widowhood, lays down an ultimatum: Eddie has one weekend to secure his season tickets or forever abandon his dream.
So winds the plot of what, if a once-high-flying Hollywood producer and his financier succeed in their quest, will be a made-in-Wisconsin movie called "Cheeseheads."
The production, in turn, could kick off what film-industry proponents here hope will be a surge in Wisconsin-based movie-making, boosted by a package of recently enacted financial incentives.
John Daly, who in the 1980s produced such movies as "Platoon," "Hoosiers," "The Terminator" and "The Last Emperor," is trying to get "Cheeseheads" made. Working with him is Anton Nel, a South African-turned-Californian film financier.
Daly said the script for "Cheeseheads" gave him the same feeling as "Hoosiers," the feel-good story of a tiny Indiana high school and its down-on-his-luck coach who triumph in the state basketball tournament.
"This is family, this is love story, this is comradeship," he said of "Cheeseheads." "This is an ordinary person's dreams. And it's rather touching that these people who come from a sort of mundane background really don't dream of going to Monaco or some other resort where they would mingle with the rich. Their only desire is to be able to get in and see the Green Bay Packers."
A Marquette connection
Nel, for his part, described "Cheeseheads" as a " 'Fargo' meets 'The Full Monty' kind of story."
The screenplay was written by Kenwood Youmans, a Los Angeles native who was struck by Packers culture while attending Marquette University during the early '90s.
" 'Cheeseheads' is kind of my ultimate love letter to Wisconsin," he said.
Daly said the film would be shot in Green Bay and cost about $10 million to make.
"We have the funding in place," he said. "All that is waiting is permission from the NFL."
That's a hitch. The National Football League guards its image tightly and seldom allows movie-makers to use such things as the names of its teams and their logos, Youmans said.
But he said there are ways around NFL permission, such as avoiding use of game footage and referring to the team as "Green Bay" rather than "the Packers."
It's been a long time since Daly had a hit movie. The firm he once headed, Hemdale Film Corp., was a leading independent movie company during the '80s but, pressed by creditors, went through bankruptcy reorganization in the 1990s.
Daly blamed the bankruptcy on the financial stress Hemdale's chief lender, Credit Lyonnais, experienced in trying to take over MGM.
Daly now is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Film and Music Entertainment Inc., a Los Angeles company whose penny stock trades over the counter. It closed Friday at 65 cents a share.
Youmans is confident about the financial prospects for "Cheeseheads."
"I know it would make its money in Wisconsin alone," he said.
Also confident is Daly, whose career has seen him not only produce many movies but help promote the legendary 1974 fight in Zaire, in which Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman to regain the heavyweight title seven years after he had been stripped of the crown for refusing induction into the U.S. Army.
"It was a sad time," Daly said of the unraveling of Hemdale, "but I'm back. I'm making films and producing films and directing films. The film business is mercurial. You're up, you're down, but you must never be out. And I learned that from Muhammad Ali."