The Chris Moeller Archives

The Final Production Delay

After a year of waiting, the film "The Final Season," about the last high school baseball campaign of tiny Norway, IA in 1991 (my connection to the story here and here,) is proceeding into production. Late in May, shooting will begin in Cedar Rapids, Marshalltown, and Norway, and will wrap in early July. Since last we spoke, my alma mater has apparently relaxed its policy on the use of Benton Community school facilities, but still refuses to grant the use of its name for a script that its administrators think could defame the school. Instead, it will be called "Benson Community." (Makes perfect sense with a little hindsight, don't it?)

"The Lord of the Rings" star Sean Astin is still slated to star as head coach Kent Stock, but veteran actor Sam Elliott, not unlike the coach he would have been portraying, took a powder, and has been replaced by Powers Boothe, who plays that clever cocksucker Cy Tolliver on our favorite TV show, "Deadwood." Ultra-babe Eliza Dushku, late of TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," will play Astin's love interest (I'm not buying it,) and Tom Arnold has heroically finagled his way into the movie set and filmed in his home state (I like Tom.) Astin's brother, Mackenzie, who you remember as George Clooney's junior foil on "The Facts of Life," also appears.

Who else stars in "The Final Season"? Maybe you, fellow Iowan. Thirty-three roles are still being cast, according to this link from the movie's website. Local wags are already wondering-- is the player "Tyler Kitt" modeled after Norway alum Tyson Kimm, son of former big league manager Bruce Kimm? Is "Harvey Makepeace" an homage to former Benton Superintendent of Schools Harold Merchant? Is Norway's town diamond destined to become the tourist attraction that Dyersville's "Field of Dreams" has become? Will the character "Barb" work behind the real Norway P&P counter on-screen, and who was the real "Barb," anyway? How can a team with 19 state championships be considered an underdog? Isn't this like rooting for the Yankees? Why do some web summaries refer to the larger school as Benson, while at other times, it's Madison? How can producers expect to find a "Don Zimmer look-alike" for the "Coach Hinkleman" part without having to hire the real thing? Were scenes involving Stock in St. Louis expected to be filmed at old Busch Stadium, because it's no longer there? If Stock was a teacher at Belle Plaine High School in 1991, was it even permissable for him to be coaching at a different school? And, if so, could the state championship still be rescinded? Will the producers be brave enough to tackle the controversial consolidation of Newhall, IA's high school into Benson Community 25 years previous? Could this movie wind up being as corny as it's beginning to sound?

posted by CM @ 10:42 AM