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Every Wednesday throughout July and August, we'll be posting updates from the guys behind of Streetballers, a locally produced independent film that's making its St. Louis premiere on August 21. If you didn't catch the first two posts, see Week One here, and Week Two here. Lots of developments this week, most of 'em on the grand scale ...
The Streetballers Team: Matt Krentz (backpack), Craig Thomas (arms crossed), Patrick Rooney (white shorts). Photograph courtesy of the St. Louis American.
Bigger than big on the JumboTron: Beginning this week, the Streetballers trailer (featuring Nelly & the St. Lunatics), screens on the JumboTron during Cardinal home games. With an average of 43,000 people at each game, this is bigger than the big screen. And Wehrenberg Theatres is sponsoring ticket and merchandise giveaways for Team Fredbird to hand out between innings—an unheard-of thing for a locally produced independent film...
With all that love from the home team, the least we can give them is a strike: The Cardinals honored Streetballers star Jimmy McKinney by asking him to throw out the first pitch on August 14th when the Cards take on the San Diego Padres. The Post-Dispatch recently did an article on Jimmy (a professional basketball player) and his prospects as a pro ball player (see an even earlier story here). With Jimmy's skill and praise from Tony LaRussa for his throwing ability, the Streetballers team predicts a strike, hard and on the inside corner.
Shooting Big for the Release: With the momentum from the Cardinals’ generosity and all our other work, we’re aiming for a huge goal: For Streetballers to have the highest per-screen average of any independent film in America during its opening weekend of August 21, 2009. If St. Louis turns out for Streetballers, it’ll be a big win that will shock the industry, build on the momentum of our festival wins—and prove that St. Louis known is a place that turns out great movies.
New alliances, an official soundtrack, a new website, some big business moves: With August 21 approaching, we’ve finally finalized contracts with two important Los Angeles-based allies: Circus Road Films and ASA-PR. Circus Road Films will represent Streetballers for world-wide sales rights, and ASA-PR will be spreading awareness of our Streetballers hybrid self-distribution model and pumping our home-grown story on a national scale. Beginning August 1, the very important Streetballers national publicity campaign will be in full-effect… St. Louis filmmakers will be on the map. In just a day or so, we'll be relaunching the website, where you can preorder the DVD, check out who'll be on the final soundtrack (including R. Prophet, Chingy, The Stockholdaz, Yung Ro and others) and preorder tickets for the premiere (you can get them here for now). The intricate parts of the machine are rolling a bit better each day as we are drivin’ to the hoop! —Matthew Krentz, Craig Thomas and Patrick Rooney
