Creative team of Cory Weissman movie discusses plans and inspiration for film
By Jennifer Kiebach, News and Web Editor
When Bob Burris, writer and producer of “1,000 to 1: The Cory Weissman Story,” receives compliments about the upcoming movie’s script, he tells them, “Thank you very much, but this is Cory’s story.”
Burris, along with producer Bruce Gordon and director Michael Levine, spoke to students and community members in Kline Theater Sept. 24 about the process of turning Cory Weissman’s story into a full-length feature film.
According to the creative team, however, the inspirational characters in Weissman’s life, coupled with the charming setting of Gettysburg College, created a story that wrote itself.
“When you watch the film, it will be pretty much the way it happened,” Levine said.
“1,000 to 1: The Cory Weissman Story” describes the journey of Gettysburg College student Cory Weissman who, after suffering a stroke during his freshman season, returned to the basketball court three years later to make the first and only point of his college career.
Cast and crew will be on-campus for 18 days starting Oct. 2 to film the movie in the areas where many of Cory’s major moments took place, including Bream and Plank gyms, the Science Center and the planetarium.
While director Levine said the creative team had to take some creative liberties with the story, he hopes that the final product will be as close to Weissman’s actual experiences as possible.
“It may have never really happened, but it’s true to the spirit of what happened,” he said.
He added that the crew plans to be “very unintrusive” during filming and will make very few changes to the setting in which the story takes place.
“We’re shooting Gettysburg for Gettysburg,” Levine said. “The college is the college, and it sells itself.”
The film will be produced independently on a budget of $1 million, which, according to producer Gordon, is as low as possible for a full-length feature film.
He and the rest of the creative team nonetheless hope that the movie will warrant a theatrical release due to its realistic characters and star-studded cast, including David Henrie (“Wizards of Waverly Place”) as Cory, Beau Bridges (“Without Warning: The James Brady Story”) as his coach and Jean Louisa Kelly (“Yes, Dear”) as Cory’s mother.
Renowned trumpet-player and six-time Grammy Award winner Arturo Sandoval will also contribute to the movie’s star power as he composes and records its score.
This decision to shoot on the Gettysburg campus will provide students interested in theater or film a unique opportunity to gain the kinds of hands-on experiences that usually take years to come across in the movie industry, Gordon said.
Interested students can follow the link on the Current Students page of the College website to apply to be an extra, or they can contact Student Labor Coordinator Anskar Fosse (eanskar.fosse@gmail.com) to assist in the production process.
Students can also learn more about the movie at a kickoff event at noon Oct. 1 in Bream Gym.
Photos from www.facebook.com/1000to1movie
