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::FILM NEWS::
LE Newsletter -
September 4, 2008
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LeBron James Heads To Toronto For Big
Screen Debut
Source:
www.thestar.com -
Associated Press
(September 03, 2008) CLEVELAND–LeBron
James
has gone from the
gold-medal stand to the silver screen.
The Cleveland Cavaliers' megastar, fresh off helping the U.S.
basketball team win gold at the Beijing Olympics, will be at the
Toronto International Film Festival this weekend for the debut
of
More Than A Game,
a documentary chronicling his rise to stardom and how he and
four childhood friends overcame long odds to win a national
championship in high school.
Combining footage taken during James' career at St. Vincent-St.
Mary High School in nearby Akron, along with one-on-one
interviews by writer/director Kris Belman, home videos, and
personal family photographs, the film is about much more than
basketball. At its core is a story of friendship, loyalty and
love.
"We set out with a goal as kids and we wanted to accomplish that
someway, somehow by using basketball as a tool, not knowing that
it was going to create other opportunities for us," James said.
"We didn't know it was going to create a brotherhood and trust.
"We grew from kids into young men."
James is expected to be joined by friends and former teammates
Dru Joyce III, Sian Cotton, Willie McGee and Romeo Travis for
the premiere.
Like the much-acclaimed 1994 film Hoop Dreams, which
followed two Chicago high school students chasing their dream of
becoming pro basketball players, More Than A Game focuses
on how James and his friends' lives are shaped by basketball.
Their journey began together as 8-year-old boys, winds through
years criss-crossing the U.S. playing in AAU tournaments and
finishes in their senior season at St. Vincent-St. Mary, a year
when James came under scrutiny for accepting a $50,000
sports-utility vehicle as a gift from his mother and his
eligibility was briefly stripped by the Ohio High School
Athletic Association.
At the time, Belman was a film student at Loyola Marymount. He
set out to chronicle James and his friends' season as his final
school project, a 10-minute documentary. But after gaining the
trust of the players and coach Dru Joyce, Belman spent two
months filming and eventually teamed with producer Harvey Mason
Jr. to the full-length feature.
James hopes the film will inspire youngsters.
"We set out with a goal when we were eight and we accomplished
it when we were 18," he said. "It's a great story and I wanted
to get it out to kids that have a dream, that they should
continue to go after it, believe in it and live it if they want
to accomplish something." |
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::LANGFIELD
ENTERTAINMENT:: ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADIAN TWIST::
