Magazine Scan - My All American Director about the movie

The last issue of "Sports Illustrated" has an interview with "My All American" Director Angelo Pizzo.

Here you can find the part of his interview regarding "My All American".

Thank you to Chris for sending me the scan.

click on the image to enlarge it

Article's transcription:

"Three years ago I got a Facebook message from a guy named Tony Jones, who asked if I'd be interested in adapting a book that had just been written about Freddie Steinmark. He was a defensive back on the 1969 Texas Longhorns' national champtionship team. It's a bit like "Hoosiers": Everyone in Texas knows about Freddie, but his story hadn't crossed state lines.It's an incredible story. Freddie was an undersized player from outside Denver whose only big scholarship offer had been from Texas coach Darrell Royal. Before the Cotton Bowl, Freddie visited the hospital for what he thought was a bone bruise. It was a cancerous tumor. he had his leg amputated and was told he wouldn't live more than a year. Freddie says, "This is going to be my last game; I'm going to be with my team." He shows up in the locker room. None of the players know he's going to be there. Coach Royal knows and he says, "Take us out, Freddie. Take us onto the field". Freddie died at 22. Jim Dent, a Texas writer, had written a fantastic book about Freddie titled "Courage Beyond the Game". I read it and figured I could adapt it. I laid out for Jones what needed to be done to get this movie off the ground. Six months later I got a call: "We got the money for you to write the script".I took six or eight months to write the first draft.when I gave people the script, everybody cried at the end. If I can make people cry in screenplay form, I know we have a serious chance in movie form.The deal I'd made was just to write the screenplay. The producer asked me to help him put together a list of directors. I just felt it was mine, and I made my case: "The reason you hired me is because you wanted a movie like "Rudy". You wanted the tone, the feeling, the emotionality. If you hand the script to another director, you won't necessarily get that. I need to be the director". Bud Brigham, the chief financier, god bless him, took a chance on me.So, for the last few months I've been in Austin directing my first movie, "My All American". And I'm loving it. The budget is about $20 million. I feel great about everything so far, especially the casting. Finn Wittlock is playing Freddie, and he's amazing. Aaron Eckhart is Darrell Royal. The amount of research he's done is phenomenal; has has inhabited the UT coach."