According to writer/director Don Handfield, the movie is essentially about how a small community comes together to help one of its members in a time of need. And for a small, independent film, it took a lot of support from Coopersville residents, who came out in droves to be extras, or let the production use their property or vintage cars for filming.

“We shot it in 20 days, when any studio film is 90 or 120,” Handfield said in a recent phone interview. “Everyone (in Coopersville) was so enthusiastic – it was a blessing. They’re good, hard-working community people – that’s what the movie’s about.

“There’s something romantic to me about small towns and communities. It’s really beautiful.”

“Touchback” boasts a reported budget of $15 million, according to the Internet Movie Database. Handfield said the last year-and-a-half was spent showing the movie to test audiences and shopping for a distributor. When crowds responded well to the heartfelt drama – which is as much a love story as it is a sports film – Anchor Bay Films picked it up for distribution in November. It opened last week in 20 markets, and will expand further this week.

“The goal is to see it in theaters nationwide in three or four weeks,” said the movie’s star, Brian Presley, calling from New York City a day prior to taping a segment for “The View” to promote the movie.

Presley will attend the opening-night party for “Touchback” at 7 p.m. Friday at Celebration Cinema North, where he’ll meet and greet fans. The event will benefit the West Michigan Film Office, which helped coordinate the movie shoot locally.

Handfield said he loved “the spirit of community” he finds in the Midwest, having spent summers with his father in Indiana, and attending Ohio State University. In “Touchback,” Coopersville passes for Coldwater, Ohio, where Scott Murphy, played by Presley, is a farmer struggling to make ends meet for his family. Haunted by a potential football career waylaid by a crippling injury incurred in high school competition, Scott harbors thoughts of suicide, but gets a chance to re-live the week prior to the fateful game when he wakes up 20 years in the past.

Filmed in the summer of 2010, “Touchback” used Coopersville High School as a base of operations, with many scenes filmed at the football stadium or inside the school. Kurt Russell has a key role as the football coach. Melanie Lynskey plays Scott’s wife, Christine Lahti is his mother and Marc Blucas is his best friend.

Local radio personality Bill “Huge” Simonson has a voiceover role as a play-by-play announcer, and former Detroit Lions superstar Barry Sanders has a cameo.

Handfield wrote the script during a painful part of his life, after his first marriage fell apart.

“As a child of divorced parents, I said I’d never get divorced, and the story came out of that feeling of failure,” he said. “When you write in the middle of failure or heartbreak, you write from your core, not your brain.”

Although a strong character attracted Presley to the role, what drew him in was the ability to put the pads on once again. The actor, 34, played football in Jenks, Okla. when he was in high school, and excelled to the point where he attended the University of Arkansas. But he left after one year to go to Los Angeles, where he finished a business degree and started the company, Freedom Films, which produced “Touchback.”

He said one of the film’s goals was to make the football scenes as authentic as possible, so he trained hard for the role, and did a lot of his own stunts.

“I paid the price,” Presley said. “But the hard work paid off. We wanted to get me and Blucas into the action. It was pretty brutal.”

Handfield laughs when talking about filming the football scenes in the humidity and heat of a West Michigan summer.

“It’s easy to direct that stuff,” he said. “The football players were working for 12 or 14 hours straight, and it was a Herculean task. If I had to do that, I’d have pulled a hammy.”

Handfield said he will not be able to attend Friday’s party because he’ll be out of the country working on a movie project with Jeremy Renner, star of “The Hurt Locker” and “The Avengers,” with whom he started a production company. Presley found time to return to West Michigan while working on pre-production for his next movie, “Thunder Run,” about soldiers fighting in Baghdad in the Iraq War; his co-stars will be Matthew McConaughey, Gerard Butler and Sam Worthington.

The two echoed each other’s statements about how grateful they were for the support they received from the people of Coopersville during the shoot.

“Without them, this movie wouldn’t be what it is,” Presley said.

I hope all is well it’s been a while!  I just wanted to let you know I am holding 2 summer performing arts intensives this summer.  One at the Saugatuck Center For The Arts, July 16th-21st & the other at Lowell Performing Arts Center, August 13th-18th. Our summer intensive will include Master Classes with star of TV’s Smash Megan Hilty, So You Think You Can Dance Winner, Melanie Moore, 8West’s Rachael Ruiz, myself and several more.  Additional classes will be taught in acting, voice, singing and many more medias. The camp will also feature a Student Film Festival; where the students will conceive, write, director, edit and produce their own short films.  The films will premiere at the end of the week along with performances of the student’s class work.

Below is our latest eblast announcing our Lowell location and a link to our movie promo trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alqyv84WtJE

For additional information and to register people can go to www.BroadwayBreakThru.com.

We are only accepting 100-150 students per location and are offering scholarships and financial aid, so I’m not worried about the attendance but I always appreciate help in spreading the word.

Hope to see you very soon my friend!

My Best,

David Petro

The local debut of the football movie, which stars Brian Presley and Kurt Russell and filmed in West Michigan, will be celebrated with an opening-night party April 20, the day it debuts in theaters. Presley is scheduled to attend a special screening of the film at Celebration Cinema North, and the event will benefit the West Michigan Film Office. Local radio personality Bill “Huge” Simonson, who is the voice of the radio announcer in the movie, will also attend.

An independent production, “Touchback” filmed primarily in Coopersville in July and August of 2010, occupying numerous locations in the small town, using Coopersville High School as its primary base of operations. It also occupied many of the town’s residents, who were either extras – notably for football scenes at the school stadium, which required hundreds of people to fill the stands – or allowed the production to use their automobiles as props or their property for locations.

So don’t be surprised if the theater is packed with Coopersville folk on April 20.

“If you lived in Coopersville, you were probably part of this movie,” said Rick Hert, director of the West Michigan Film Office. “The pride of the community definitely comes out.

“A lot of people want to rejoice in the film. They’ve been waiting for it. Everyone has their story about it.”

Grand Rapids MI – After waiting for the past one and half years since the filming of Touchback in Coopersville and Grand Rapids MI., the much anticipated first public showing theatrical release in Grand Rapids will be Friday, April 20th. Be one of the first to see the film on opening night at 7:00 pm April 20th at Celebration Cinema North!

In cooperation with Celebration Cinema, the city of Coopersville, MI and the West Michigan Film Office a benefit showing including a red carpet event is planned for the night of April 20th at Celebration North. Tickets are only $20 which include “Be a star” and walk the red carpet complete with paparazzi, and sponsored pop and popcorn.

Brian Presley, star of Touchback is scheduled to be at this showing and available to sign autographs and give attendees insight into the making of this uplifting family movie. Local celebrity and Touchback football announcer Bill Simonson from the Huge Show on WBBL FM will be doing the play-by-play for this not to be missed showing of this made in Michigan soon to be classic.

Join the rally before the showing at Pals Diner at 6503 28th St Se, Grand Rapids at 5:30 pm on April 20th. Participants are encouraged to wear their “Coldwater HS shirts, football jerseys or costumes” used during the making of Touchback to this rally.

Pals Diner has a starring role in Touchback and we have invited the 1200 extras and their 70’s vintage automobiles to rally in the parking lot prior to car caravanning to the showing at Celebration North located at 2121 Celebration Drive NE in Grand Rapids.

Reserve your tickets before they sell out for this benefit at Celebration North and WMFO showing of Touchback.

(end)

The first movie in the raunchy teen comedy series was originally titled “East Great Falls High” and was written based on Herz’s experiences at East Grand Rapids High School where he graduated in 1991.

From East Grand Rapids, Herz graduated from the University of Michigan. So while he may have been born in New York City, his formative years were spent right here in Michigan. As a matter of fact, his father, Dr. David Herz, is a highly respected neurosurgeon still practicing in Wyoming.
In his efforts to make it in Hollywood, Adam, like many before him, had to struggle to survive.

“I got a production assistant job on ‘Polish Wedding,’ which I thought was awesome, because you get paid to work on a movie, which is like a dream come true, ” he said in a 1999 interview with The Grand Rapids Press.

“I had grown up always wanting to do something in the movie business.”

When the movie was finished shooting and everyone went back to Hollywood, Herz said, he had made plenty of contacts in Los Angeles. So off he went to seek his fortune in the land of perpetual warmth.

“Every single person I knew who promised me a job couldn’t get a job themselves, ” he said.
So Herz took the job-hunting upon himself with a couple of shows he wrote on speculation for “Seinfeld” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”
“The idea is that you write for ‘Seinfeld’ not to sell them, but as evidence of talent. I was hoping to get hired as a staff writer on anyone’s show.”

And his talent was noticed.

When he wrote the screenplay for what would become “American Pie,” he was running low on funds.
“My credit cards were maxed out. I cashed in all my bonds,” he said.

He wrote the screenplay in three weeks, then earned $650,000 when it was sold to Universal.
“Some of my best writing comes from pressure”, he said. It was the first screenplay he had written — not a bad way to start your career.
Herz was one of the celebrity guests during the Waterfront Film Festival in Saugatuck in 2001.

While he isn’t one of the authors, Adam will be an executive producer for the upcoming and more than likely final episode called “American Reunion”.
Here’s an extended trailer from the original “American Pie” movie.

My film Deadrise (aka Fitful) starring Renee O’Connor and Larry Joe Campbell is in the hands of excellent distributors in Los Angeles, and they just asked if I could drum up some support for the film on the IMDB website.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1552192/

I don’t usually ask for this kind of thing, but the way the marketing world is these days, the buyers worldwide look at this kind of data. So, if you saw the film, and feel like offering your opinion, hopefully positive, then please do!!!

Thanks.

Rich

Rich Brauer

Brauer Productions, Inc.

530 S. Union Street

Traverse City, MI 49684

231-941-0850 ext#105

231-632-6613 c

231-941-0947 fax

rich@brauer.com

www.brauer.com

The film features Christopher Lloyd of “Back to the Future” fame in the role of Grandpa Jack as well as Frank Drank, Ernie Hudson of “Ghostbusters” and “Desperate Housewives” fame, Lee Arenberg, seen in “Pirates of the Caribbean,” Patrika Darbo, seen in film and “Days of Our Lives,” Francesca Derosa and Derek Brandon.

See the full story in today’s print and eEditions of the Ludington Daily News.

By Laura Houser | 12:48 pm

The mood was optimistic Saturday morning as a panel of film industry experts discussed the status of the Michigan film industry, held as part of the second annual Uptown Film Festival at the Palladium 12.

Made of up industry experts from Hollywood to Lansing, the panel discussed the state’s new incentive for filmmakers, why it works, how it can improve and why many of the rumors — that Hollywood has turned its back on Michigan — is wrong.

“My colleagues in LA thought it was over in Detroit,” said Peter Nelson, a filmmaker and producer who worked on the made-in-Detroit film, Sparkle. “We need to clear up those misconceptions.”

Sitting alongside Nelson at the early-morning panel was Carrie Jones, director of the Michigan Film Office; Sen. Randy Richardville (R-17th District), majority leader in the Michigan State Senate; Steve Lemberg, CFO of the Pontiac-based Raleigh Michigan Studios; and Patty Kahn, a CPA for Kahn & Company.

Top of mind for all the panelists, and many of the two dozen or so in attendance, was the recently reconfigured tax incentives for filmmakers who want to make films in Michigan. In the 2012-13 state budget, under the direction of Gov. Rick Snyder, only $25 million has been allocated to be distributed as film incentives.

According to MLive, Michigan approved $361.1 million in film tax credits from the program’s inception in April 2008 through March 2011.

Jeffrey Spilman, co-executive producer of the Uptown Film Festival as well as the founder and managing partner of the Ferndale-based S3 Entertainment Group, said the mood in the Michigan film industry has been dour since the incentives were capped at $25 million a year in 2011.

However, Richardville said there’s movement in the Michigan legislature to increase the film budget in upcoming years and he’s “doing everything” he can to change traditional conservative notions of economic return when it comes to the film industry.

“We are forming a budget now that would put $100 million toward this,” Richardville said. “We will be fighting and I intend to win.”

Richardville said Snyder has entered office with the idea that the film industry should be able to take care of itself, however Richardville said the film incentives program is about more than numbers — it’s about what’s good for Michigan.

“(The film industry has) brought infrastructure, investment, people who want to work here,” he said. “There’s an excitement I haven’t seen in my lifetime.”

According to Jones, even though the Michigan Film Office now has fewer funds to work with, they’re still optimistic about the new incentives.

“We’re really excited about the new program,” she said. “We think it has a lot of potential.”

According to Jones, there have been eight applications for the tax incentives since the film office began accepting them on Jan. 9. Those applications are currently under review for their financial viability, how well the projects utilize existing infrastructure, whether Michiganders will be hired and how well the films promote Michigan tourism.

Jones said the film office has been aggressive in seeking out filmmakers and projects. “We’re letting them know we have worldclass infrastructure, talented people, a beautiful place to film and more.”

Ultimately, Nelson said for Michigan’s film industry to survive, it must work to clarify its incentive program so that filmmakers from around the country know what they need to do to begin making movies in Michigan.

“There was a lot of uncertainty last year,” he said, “and you’re dealing with the consequences of that. But if you keep it around, people will come around.”

Richardville agreed, and said the first step — for him, at least — is convincing lawmakers and Michigan residents that the film industry is important.

“We need to be creative and explain things not only from the financial conservative perspective, but why it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

The Uptown Film Festival continues with films all day today at the Palladium and Birimingham 8 (check out Uptown Film Festival: Saturday’s Schedule for today’s line-up). The event wraps up with the third annual Michigan Film Awards at 9:30 p.m. at the Palladium.

Catch up with Birmingham Patch’s coverage of the 2012 Uptown Film Festival by checking out all the stories we’ve published at Uptown Film Festival 2012 http://birmingham.patch.com/topics/uptown-film-festival-2012 .