If you’ve been waiting for more news on the film version of 12 Mighty Orphans, you’ve just scored a touchdown.
The film will open in New York – oh yeah – and Texas on June 11, opening everywhere else the next week, on June 18.
There’s also a trailer for the film that you can watch here.
The film has some star firepower: Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall and Luke Wilson, as well as Vinessa Shaw, Wayne Knight, Jake Austin Walker, Treat Williams, Ron White and Scott Haze.
The film is based on the book of the same name by Jim Dent.
The book is the true story of the Mighty Mites football team that played in the 1930s and 1940s at the Masonic Home and School of Texas in Fort Worth that was located at the intersection of U.S. 287 and Berry Street. The team was led by legendary high school coach Rusty Russell, who was himself an orphan. Russell, considered the grandfather of the “spread offense,” is played by Wilson.
That is now the site of Renaissance Square, the retail and housing project that is remaking the face of Southeast Fort Worth.
The Masonic Home was built to house and educate the orphans of Texas Freemasons.
The film has plenty of local connections. Producer Brinton Bryan of Greenbelt Films and executive producer, oilman George M. Young Jr. are both are from the area. The film is directed by Ty Roberts, another Texas native. Roberts who adapted the screenplay with Lane Garrison and Kevin Meyer. If Garrison’s name is familiar, he is also from North Texas and played “Tweener” in the TV series Prison Break and starred in the adaption of the Texas oilfield classic, The Iron Orchard. Santa Rita Film Co. produced The Iron Orchard and Houston Hill and Roberts of Santa Rita also produced 12 Mighty Orphans, along with Michael De Luca and Angelique De Luca of Michael De Luca Productions.
For more on the film, click here.