By Dave Wellman
Most who know the history of the catastrophic Nov. 14, 1970,
Marshall University plane crash, it seems only logical that it has become
the subject of a major motion picture. But why now? What took so long
for someone or some studio to commit to turning the amazing story of
tragedy and triumph into a movie?
Why, more than 35 years later, did Warner Bros. Pictures decide
the time is right to use the big screen to tell the world about the crash – the
worst sports-related disaster in U.S. history? It is not as if no one before
had thought of telling the story of the horrible event that claimed the
lives of 75 people, including most of the Marshall football team, and the
miraculous, emotional recovery of a university and community that followed.
“Each year since I came to the president’s office
in 1997, I would get various and sundry telephone calls from would-be producers
who would want to produce a movie about the Marshall plane crash,” said
Dr. Keith Spears, Marshall’s vice president for communications and
marketing. “Every one was with good intentions but typically lacked
the resources and the ability to do it.”
The difference this time? A script.
In late summer 2005, Hollywood again came calling. This time
the message was from Warner Bros. producer Basil Iwanyk, who had made up
his mind to make a movie on the Marshall crash and wanted to talk with Spears
about his plans.
“I thought quite frankly, ‘Oh boy, another one,’” Spears
said, recalling his first reaction to the news that Iwanyk had called. Spears
doubted that this proposal would be any different than previous ones. But
Iwanyk’s proposal was different. He had a script for the movie already
in hand.
“When he told me he had a script, I thought that was
very significant,” Spears said. The script had been written by young
Jamie Linden, a 2001 Florida State University alumnus who had learned about
the crash while reading a story in the school newspaper a year before he
graduated. He had been obsessed with the story since reading the article,
and turned it into a screenplay that Warner Bros. bought in March 2004.
Spears, though not totally sold on the idea of a movie, listened
with an open mind to what Iwanyk had to say. All the while, he remembered
that the documentary Ashes to Glory had been released in 2000 on the 30th
anniversary of the crash, and it won rave reviews and awards. He questioned
whether a major motion picture was even needed.
“We felt the documentary did a very good job of describing
the intense emotion of what the community had gone through,” Spears
said. “We didn’t think it was necessary to have a movie.”
At first, Spears turned down Iwanyk’s offer to visit
Warner Bros. in California at the studio’s expense. Eventually, Iwanyk
and Mary Viola, an associate producer with Thunder Road Pictures in Burbank,
Calif., decided to fly cross-country to Huntington to visit Spears and the
university. Viola, too, was “obsessed” with the Marshall story.
The two producers made it clear during that late-summer visit
that they had been given great encouragement by Warner Bros. to produce
the movie, whether Marshall was involved or not. “We knew that it
is not imperative that the university be involved with a film about it,” Spears
said.
But Warner Bros. wanted Marshall to be involved in the process. “We
appreciate the fact that they came to us, asking us to be actively involved,” Spears
said. By coincidence, another major studio got involved in negotiations
with Marshall and its Board of Governors last fall, declaring its interest
in making a movie on the crash. Suddenly, producers from two studios were
in Huntington, talking at different times with the Board of Governors executive
committee.
Menis Ketchum, chairman of the Marshall Board of Governors,
expressed his concerns as talks between the studios and board began.
“Our main concern was whether a movie company would
budget enough money to do the movie justice and to get it national attention,” Ketchum
explained. “We wanted enough money budgeted so that they could get
the right movie stars and cause a buzz across the country. We wanted to
be sure the plane crash story would be told in a light favorable to the
crash victims.”
Spears said the board had some “parameters” it
wanted the producers to stay within.
“We asked three things of the filmmakers: honor those
who were killed on the plane and their survivors; respect the citizens of
Huntington and West Virginia, and our Appalachian culture; and finally,
guard the integrity of the university.”
The executive committee decided to cooperate with Warner Bros.
and Warner Bros. decided to fund the entire project. In early November 2005, “We
Are Marshall”, though untitled at the time, was on its way to becoming
a reality.
In the next several weeks producers, directors and actors
were hired, and scouting for places to shoot was ongoing on Marshall’s
campus and in the Huntington community. Through combined efforts of West
Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin’s office, Pam Haynes of the West Virginia
Film Office and Marshall, it was agreed that Warner Bros. would spend three
weeks in spring 2006 filming in the community and on Marshall’s campus.
The final two months, which would include the movie’s football scenes,
would be filmed in Atlanta where Morris Brown College’s Herndon Stadium
would be transformed into an old Fairfield Stadium look-alike.
Interest in the film ballooned when cast and crew members
were publicized, one at a time. Matthew McConaughey, People magazine’s “Sexiest
Man Alive,” was chosen to play Jack Lengyel, coach of the Young Thundering
Herd. Just like that, “We Are Marshall” had credibility. “It’s
an honor to be stepping into his proverbial shoes,” McConaughey said
of Lengyel. “What he did was some life affirming things.”
Another big name to join the crew, though not as widely known
as McConaughey, was McG, who directed the film. McG had directed Charlie’s
Angels and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Even before he was announced
as director of “We Are Marshall”, McG quietly visited Huntington,
hanging out and talking to people to get their take on the crash and the
recovery. That visit convinced him to shoot a good portion of the film in
Huntington. “This is a tough little town,” he said later. “It’s
the little town that wouldn’t quit.”
People from throughout the region and beyond wanted to be
a part of the movie in one way or another. Most longed for a part as an
extra. An open casting call for extras shortly before filming began attracted
some 1,500 people to Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center.
Others offered their old cars or their homes for use in the movie and some
even wrote songs they hoped would be used in the film.
The movie attracted an impressive cast of stars, in addition
to McConaughey. He was joined by Matthew Fox from ABC’s Lost, Oscar
nominee David Strathairn and Ian McShane from Deadwood, among others. Finally,
the shooting schedule was set. Filming would begin in Huntington on Monday,
April 3, and continue for three weeks.
The city threw a huge block party on Saturday, April 1 to
welcome the filmmakers to Huntington. The event, organized by Kindred Communications
after Warner Bros. and Marshall originated the idea and the city helped
plan it, took place in front of the
Keith-Albee Theatre on Fourth Avenue and drew thousands of people. To their
delight, McG and McConaughey greeted the shoulder-to-shoulder, camera-toting
fans from a stage and joined in thunderous cheers of “We Are … Marshall!”
Much of the filming that followed took place at several sites
on Marshall’s campus, including the Morrow Library, Memorial Fountain,
Campus Christian Center, Buskirk Field and the Memorial Student Center,
to name a few.
All were revamped by the set designer to look like 1970 all
over again. Downtown Huntington, too, was vintage 1970. The Keith-Albee
marquee advertised Kelly’s Heroes as the featured attraction, storefronts
were stocked with ‘70s apparel and parking meters were painted gold
like the old ones. Crowds gathered as close to the sets as possible not
only to see the process unfold, but to perhaps get a glimpse of a movie
star or two.
Throughout the pre-filming days, concerns surfaced as to how
the story would be told. McG did his best to ease those worries
during a pair of news conferences and other interviews with the media. “We
want to get this story told properly and represent the community fairly and
get the story out to the world,” he said.
Filming ended April 22 in Huntington, then continued into
June in Atlanta.
“We Are Marshall” will be released to the world
on Dec. 22. Prior to that the movie will have two premieres: one in Huntington
on Dec. 12 and another in Hollywood on Dec. 14.
Marshall President Stephen J. Kopp said he expects the film
to project Marshall University in a very positive light.
“From what I have witnessed and in discussions with
McG, I am very impressed with the professionalism and sensitivity bordering
on reverence that has been shown for the story,” Kopp said.
It took decades for it to happen, but “We Are Marshall” is
just days away from its worldwide release. Thanks to a script. |
