Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
An Omaha company planning to make a movie about pro football quarterback Marlin Briscoe has partnered with a premier Los Angeles-area sports attorney’s firm.
West Omaha Films, whose founders include Omaha actor John Beasley, said Monday that, in partnership with Leigh Steinberg Sports and Entertainment, the company hopes to finalize a screenplay and raise the money needed within the next three months. The budget range of the movie is $7 million to $10 million.
Briscoe, the first black quarterback in the NFL, grew up in Omaha. He and Beasley played on the same football team at Omaha University (now the University of Nebraska at Omaha) in the 1960s.
Steinberg, a leading sports attorney, has represented more than 150 professional athletes and has served as a technical adviser on other sports-related movies such as “Jerry Maguire,” “On Any Given Sunday” and “For Love of the Game.”
His firm has extensive contacts within both the sports and movie industries and offers expertise in marketing, distribution and other aspects of the movie industry. It may also help find financial partners for the movie.
A partner in Leigh’s business, former Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon, has said he looked up to Briscoe as he began his own NFL career. Moon and Briscoe formed the Field Generals, a nonprofit group that holds high school football clinics and promotes the history of black pro quarterbacks.
“Leigh and Warren bring instant credibility to the movie project,” said Terry Hanna of Omaha, a partner in West Omaha Films along with Beasley and David Clark. “They are people who have a passion for Marlin’s story and want to get this project going. Now we can take it to the next level.”
Hanna said screenwriters interested in the project include Angelo Pizzo (“Rudy,” “Hoosiers”) and Greg Howard (“Remember the Titans”).
West Omaha Films formed in 2006 and has been working on the Briscoe project ever since. Moon flew to Omaha in October to attend a private event for Briscoe. Beasley, Hanna and others flew to Steinberg’s offices in Newport Beach, Calif., in June, and final details of the contract were settled last week.
“It’s quite a coup for us,” Beasley said Monday. “Steinberg brings a lot to the table, and we now feel we are really close to doing this. The goal has always been to start production in 2010.”
He said Briscoe, who lives in the Los Angeles area, is elated about the partnership.
It was Briscoe’s 2002 autobiography, “First Black Quarterback,” that got Beasley’s attention as a possible movie.
Briscoe was starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos in 1968, then became a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills, achieving all-pro status in 1970. He played for both Miami Dolphins Super Bowl champion teams, including the 1973 team that went 17-0.
After Briscoe retired, crack cocaine cost him his fortune, his house and his reputation. Jail time followed a 1988 arrest. In jail he kicked drugs and began tutoring young men. He now works with inner-city kids, running football camps and a Boys and Girls Club.
“We want to make sure this story is told the right way,” Hanna said. “It’s not just a sports movie.”
Though part of the movie would be set in Omaha, filming will take place primarily in Iowa because of that state’s film tax incentives, Hanna said. Nebraska does not offer tax breaks or rebates to moviemakers.
Contact the writer:
444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
