The Hammer (2010 film)

Last updated

The Hammer
The Hammer 2011 poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed byOren Kaplan
Screenplay byEben Kostbar
Joseph McKelheer
Produced byKip Konwiser (executive producer), Eben Kostbar
Joseph McKelheer
Starring Russell Harvard
CinematographyDavid Rom
Edited byJacquelyn Dean
Music byiZLER
Production
companies
Film Harvest
Fifth Year Productions
Tapout Films
Distributed by D&E Entertainment
Release dates
  • November 7, 2010 (2010-11-07)(AFI)
  • October 27, 2011 (2011-10-27)(United States)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
American Sign Language

The Hammer, previously titled Hamill, is a 2010 biographical film about Matt Hamill, a deaf wrestler and mixed martial artist. Oren Kaplan directs the film based on a screenplay co-written by Eben Kostbar and Joseph McKelheer, who are also the film's producers. Russell Harvard, a deaf actor, plays Hamill in the film. The Hammer screened at several film festivals throughout 2010 and 2011. The film was released in theaters on October 27, 2011.

Contents

Plot

The Hammer follows Matt Hamill, who was born deaf, in his youth and mostly in 1997, when Hamill is a sophomore walk-on at Rochester Institute of Technology and wins the first of three collegiate wrestling championships. [1]

Cast

Also in the film are Robin Walton, Gavin Bellour, Stephen Dodd, and Courtney Halverson. [2] One of Hamill's former opponents, Rich Franklin, also appears in the film as Purdue University wrestling coach Pruitt who cuts Hamill from the team. [3]

Production

The Hammer is directed by Oren Kaplan based on a screenplay co-written by Eben Kostbar and Joseph McKelheer, who are also the film's producers. Matt Hamill is played by Russell Harvard, who is also deaf. The filmmakers spent over five years developing the project, and they sought out deaf cast and crew members for the film. [1] According to McKelheer, the writers performed "roughly" 75 rewrites to ensure Hamill's support and that the film would not be cheesy. Kostbar was originally intended to play Hamill, but they decided to cast a deaf person as the wrestler to appeal to the deaf community. [3] They first noticed Harvard in his brief role in There Will Be Blood as the adult son of Daniel Day-Lewis' character but were not sure initially if Harvard could portray an athlete. After additional searching that was inconclusive, they chose to cast Harvard as Hamill. [1]

Kostbar and McKelheer produced the film with their independent film company Film Harvest. For the production, they sought financing and found it with Fifth Year Productions, which was founded by the Farrelly brothers, Jim Kelly, and Bob Bartosiewicz. Most of the film was shot in Rochester, New York, home of Hamill's college, Rochester Institute of Technology. [4] Scenes at Purdue were actually shot at the University of Rochester. The film alternates between use of sound and absence of sound as well as the use of subtitles, frequently with words missing. [1]

Release

The Hammer, titled Hamill at the time, had its world premiere at the AFI (American Film Institute) Film Festival in November 2010, where it won a Breakthrough Film Audience Award and a $5,500 prize. [5] From then to May 2011, the film was screened at film festivals in Newport Beach, Florida, Miami, Cleveland, and Philadelphia, winning audience awards at each festival. [1] The film was given a limited theatrical release as The Hammer on October 27, 2011. [6] It was distributed by D&E Entertainment. The film was also released on DVD, Blu-ray, and video on demand by ARC Entertainment. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Film Institute</span> Nonprofit educational arts organization

The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darren Aronofsky</span> American filmmaker

Darren Aronofsky is an American filmmaker. His films are noted for their surreal, melodramatic, and often disturbing elements, frequently in the form of psychological fiction.

A hammer is a type of tool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slamdance Film Festival</span> Annual film festival held in Utah, USA

The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in late January and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization, which also hosts a screenplay competition, workshops, screenings throughout the year and events with an emphasis on independent films with budgets under US$1 million.

<i>Portrait of Jennie</i> 1948 film by William Dieterle

Portrait of Jennie is a 1948 American supernatural film based on the 1940 novella by Robert Nathan. The film was directed by William Dieterle and produced by David O. Selznick. It stars Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten. At the 21st Academy Awards, it won an Oscar for Best Special Effects. Joseph H. August was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography - Black and White.

Spyglass Media Group, LLC is an independent film and television production and finance company founded by Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum in 1998.

<i>A Beautiful Mind</i> (film) 2001 film by Ron Howard

A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American biographical film about the mathematician John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, played by Russell Crowe. The film is directed by Ron Howard based on a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, who adapted the 1998 biography by Sylvia Nasar. In addition to Crowe, the film's cast features Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Josh Lucas, Anthony Rapp, and Christopher Plummer in supporting roles. The story begins in Nash's days as a brilliant but asocial mathematics graduate student at Princeton University. After Nash accepts secretive work in cryptography, he becomes liable to a larger conspiracy, through which he begins to question his reality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Hamill</span> American mixed martial arts fighter

Matt Hamill is an American former mixed martial artist and wrestler who competed in the Light Heavyweight division of the UFC. He is a three-time NCAA Division III National Champion in wrestling while attending the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York.

<i>Garage Days</i> 2002 Australian film

Garage Days is a 2002 Australian comedy-drama film directed by Alex Proyas and written by Proyas, Dave Warner and Michael Udesky. Garage Days is the story of a young Sydney garage band desperately trying to make it big in the competitive world of rock music. Its soundtrack includes the song "Garage Days" composed by David McCormack and Andrew Lancaster and performed by Katie Noonan. The climax of the film was filmed at the Homebake festival in Sydney in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Reeves</span> American filmmaker (born 1966)

Matt Reeves is an American filmmaker who first gained recognition for the WB drama series Felicity (1998–2002), which he co-created with J. J. Abrams. Reeves came to widespread attention for directing the hit monster film Cloverfield (2008). He also directed the vampire drama Let Me In (2010), and the critically acclaimed science fiction sequels Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). He directed the superhero film The Batman (2022), which stars Robert Pattinson as the title character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armie Hammer</span> American actor (born 1986)

Armand Douglas Hammer is an American actor. He began his acting career with guest appearances in several television series. His first leading role was as Billy Graham in the 2008 film Billy: The Early Years, and he gained wider recognition for his double role portraying the twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in David Fincher's biographical drama film The Social Network (2010), for which he won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor.

<i>The Messenger</i> (2009 film) 2009 film directed by Oren Moverman

The Messenger is a 2009 war drama film starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Steve Buscemi, and Jena Malone. It is the directorial debut of Oren Moverman, who also wrote the screenplay with Alessandro Camon. The film follows a pair of United States Army casualty notification officers and the effects of their difficult work on their personal lives and each other.

Clay is a 1965 Australian drama film directed by Giorgio Mangiamele. The film was nominated for the Golden Palm award at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival, but it lost to The Knack ...and How to Get It.

<i>The Crazies</i> (2010 film) 2010 American horror film by Breck Eisner

The Crazies is a 2010 American horror film directed by Breck Eisner from a screenplay from Scott Kosar and Ray Wright. The film is a remake of the 1973 film of the same name and stars Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson and Danielle Panabaker. George A. Romero, who wrote and directed the original, served as an executive producer. It is about a fictional Iowa town that becomes afflicted by a biological agent that turns those infected into violent killers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Harvard</span> American actor

Russell Wayne Harvard is an American actor. He made his feature film debut in Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (2007), playing opposite Daniel Day-Lewis as his adopted son, H.W. Plainview. In the 2010 biopic The Hammer, he portrayed deaf NCAA championship wrestler and UFC mixed martial arts fighter Matt Hamill. Harvard also won acclaim Off Broadway in 2012 as Billy, the deaf son in an intellectual, though dysfunctional, hearing British family, in Tribes by Nina Raine. For his interpretation, he won a 2012 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance and nominations for Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor. He played Mr. Wrench in the first and third seasons of the television series Fargo.

David Linde is the CEO of the Los Angeles, California-based film production company Participant, a position to which he was appointed in October 2015. Prior to his role at Participant, Linde had leading roles at Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Good Machine, and Lava Bear Films, where films released during his tenures collectively earned more than $14 billion globally, with 158 Oscar nominations and 34 wins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Anderson (artist)</span> Canadian filmmaker and musician

Trevor Anderson is a Canadian filmmaker and musician. His films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Michael Alan Lerner is a French-American screenwriter, director, and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Johnson (director)</span> Canadian actor and filmmaker

Matt Johnson is a Canadian actor and filmmaker. He first attracted accolades for his low-budget independent feature films, including The Dirties (2013), which won Best Narrative Feature at the Slamdance Film Festival, and Operation Avalanche (2016), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Davidson, Neil (May 27, 2011). "'Hamill' tells inspirational story of deaf fighter who continues to win". The Canadian Press . Archived from the original on May 28, 2011.
  2. Chang, Justin (November 21, 2010). "Film Reviews: Hamill". Variety . Archived from the original on November 8, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Dure, Beau (October 21, 2010). "MMA's Matt Hamill a hit in the cage and on the big screen". USA Today . Archived from the original on October 22, 2010.
  4. Dure, Beau (October 22, 2010). "'Hamill' filmmakers pursue distribution". USA Today . Archived from the original on October 24, 2010.
  5. McNary, Dave (November 12, 2010). "Four take AFI aud nods". Variety .
  6. Catsoulis, Jeannette (October 26, 2011). "For a Boy Born Different, Sports as Salvation (Published 2011)". The New York Times . Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  7. McNary, Dave (September 23, 2011). "D&E locks 'The Hammer' for bigscreen". Variety .