CENTERPIECE FILM
35 years after getting kicked off his college football team, 59-year-old Mike Flynt decides to return to the gridiron for his last year of eligibility and prove to his family, former teammates, and himself that it’s never too late to tackle your dreams. Based on the true story.
Michael Chiklis, at age 59 portrays Mike Flynt, a flawed everyman, who overcomes his age, his mental demons and the preconceptions of his teammates 40 years his junior. Mary Stuart Masterson shines in one of her best performances of her brilliant career. And Rod Lurie shows again that he is a masterful storyteller.
Director: Rod Lurie is the director of “The Outpost,” released July 2020, starring Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, and Orlando Bloom. The film, based on CNN chief correspondent Jake Tapper’s bestselling book of the same name, tells the true story of the events leading up to and including the Battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan, where a small unit of U.S. soldiers defended against an overwhelming force of Taliban fighters in what was one of the bloodiest American engagements of the Afghan War. The battle resulted in two living service members, Ty Carter and Clint Romesha, being awarded the Medal of Honor – the first time that had happened in fifty years.
Lurie wrote and directed the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominated political thriller “The Contender,” starring Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Gary Oldman and Christian Slater. It won the first-ever Alan J. Pakula Award. He also wrote and directed the films “Straw Dogs,” a remake of the 1971 classic starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, and Alexander Skarsgard, “Nothing But the Truth,” starring Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda, and Matt Dillon, “Resurrecting the Champ,” starring Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Hartnett. Additionally, he created and exec-produced “Line of Fire,” a FBI drama for ABC, and directed the feature film “The Last Castle,” starring Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, and Mark Ruffalo.
In television, Lurie created the series “Commander In Chief,” which was nominated for the Best Drama Series Golden Globe, and for which Geena Davis won the Golden Globe for her depiction of the first female President of the United States.
In 2000, Lurie directed his first feature film, “Deterrence,” (Best American Indie at FLIFF) a drama about America coming to the brink of nuclear war, starring Kevin Pollak and Timothy Hutton.
Before he segued to filmmaking, Lurie graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1984 and went on to serve for four years as a Combat Arms officer in the Army.
THE CENTERPIECE PARTY will follow the film screening.
The Centerpiece Film & Party Sponsored by: Holland & Knight
