A group planning to make a movie about the very first Indianapolis 500, is eyeballing more than 200 acres in Whitestown
to build a replica Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Justin Escue, a locally based movie producer, is working to secure financing for the film. He hopes to start constructing the replica track in the spring and begin filming in the fall. Escue’s group also has a deal in the works for a Tennessee company to make 40 replica Indy cars circa 1911. I know, this sounds crazy. But Escue already secured the services of Angelo Pizzo, famed for his work on the movies “Hoosiers” and “Rudy.” Pizzo told IBJ last week he recently finished the screenplay, and thinks the movie has a good chance of getting made.
Escue also was smart enough to procure the services of local track builder Paxton Waters, who has worked on many of the tracks that NASCAR and the Indy Racing League utilize. Waters said he is already studying historical photos and other material in preparation for the project.
Waters said most of the structures will be made of wood, just as they were in 1911, and shouldn’t take too long to construct. Escue added that the structures could be deconstructed after shooting is complete and set up at some other more permanent location, as a memorial to the old days at the track—and of course, as a tourist attraction.
Escue hopes to release the movie in May, 2011, in conjunction with the race’s centennial. To read the IBJ story on the making of the movie, click here.
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And to your probable chagrin, I bet 90% of the movie audiences that saw Hoosiers and Rudy probably have never even heard of TG - so I doubt the movie will be boycotted by people like you.
DaHooey - what in your life has made you such a negative person? Why hide behind a moniker? Stand up and speak with your real name instead of DaHooey. I will credit you on this post, at least your post has risen in written intelligence and no longer contains the sophmore language you have used in the past.
The Pizzo assertion makes sense, and I think it DOES bring itsown fan base. Maybe TG can learn abit from him, ya think?
i'm mad at Tony for being such a screwup. He killed open wheel, as evidenced by the fact that upon condensing the CCWS & IRL, he's back to struggling to find 18 car grids, lost ABC/ESPN for Vs., and is running 8 year old crapwagons that sound like a pack of farting bees. no one cares about the IRL, and it all happened under TG's watch. The buck stops on his desk, and you all know it.
And don;t get me started on his loss of the USGP. Yeah Bernie is a schmuck, but that race was fantastic and in one weekend had a bigger economic impact than 3 seasons of Colts games.
Yes, Tony is much to blame, but there are many more important than you think you are that are riding on the bandwagon and still use the cars that you in all your brilliance think are so detestable. That was part of what they were trying to accomplish in keeping costs from spiraling out of total control. Last time I checked Dallara's website, they remain a respectable source of car building on a world wide basis and certainly have more to offer the world than your bee-like brain that reduces everytning tied to the IRL as worthless to your and your similarly loony minions, namely Bret, SSD and their ilk.
Oh yeah, and then you expect TG to cough up $25 million or so for the appeasement of Bernie the stooge. One of these days, Bernie is going to run out of money stops just like NASCAR will and you can't blame that on TG.
Lighten up, Hooey or shut up. Either way, we all gain!
Many millions of fans will delight in what the Speedway will put together and I hope that movie is part of it, in spite of TG.
As far as who would see this movie, who would go see a movie about a bike race at iu? I mean that would be silly. A bunch of college kids riding their bikes around an old soccer field.
Or how about a movie about a small school in Indiana who wins a 1950's basketball tourney? Who would want to go see that?
Well considering both are in the top 10 greatest sports movies of all time. But Dahooey would never understand this, it does not fit in his hate filled view of TG and IMS.
Another Indiana sports movie worth checking out is Madison about unlimited hydroplane racing. This was shown at the Heartland Film Fest several years ago.