As you can probably tell from my previous posts, I’m a huge basketball fan… so I can’t even start to explain the excitement I felt when I heard that a movie about the NBA will be filmed in Winnipeg! The best part? Winnipeg-area basketball players will have a chance to be part of it!
The movie is called Sweetwater and is set in the 1950s. It follows the life of Nathaniel (Sweetwater) Clifton, the first black player to join the NBA. The star-studded cast includes Mira Sorvino, James Caan, Kevin Pollak, and Smokey Robinson.
Shooting doesn’t begin until April but local casting calls have already begun.
“We are going to cast the basketball players from Winnipeg, from the Winnipeg area, because we quite frankly believe that in a sports movie it’s easier to teach an athlete how to act than an actor how to perform a sport,” – Brendan Kirsch, CEO of Sportsarc
They are looking for 65 players of all abilities, more tall and lean than muscular, between the ages of 18 and 34.
“Basketball back then . . . everybody was much more lean rather than huge and muscular and you know the kind of athlete we have today. So it was just a different look. It was a lot of long hair, a lot of buzz cuts, and you know, it was the Globetrotter era. It was the very beginning of show time basketball.”
Anyone fitting the description above and interested in being part of the movie can register at the SportsArc website.
Image Viva Original Ideas Originally uploaded by seanbonner
