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">Matt Damon</span> American actor (born 1970)

Matthew Paige Damon is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. He was ranked among Forbes' most bankable stars in 2007, and in 2010 was one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. He has received various awards and nominations, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for three British Academy Film Awards and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.

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.

"Mayored to the Mob" is the ninth episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 20, 1998. After Homer prevents Mayor Quimby and Mark Hamill from being trampled at a convention, Homer trains to become a bodyguard and is employed by Quimby. After Homer discovers Quimby has been making corrupt deals with Fat Tony and forces him to end the deal, Fat Tony threatens to kill Quimby, leaving Homer to defend the Mayor from threats. The episode was written by Ron Hauge and directed by Swinton O. Scott III, and received positive reviews from critics overall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Ryan</span> American actress (born 1968)

Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski, known professionally as Amy Ryan, is an American actress of stage and screen. A graduate of New York's High School of Performing Arts, she is an Academy Award nominee and three-time Tony Award nominee.

<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>30 Days of Night</i> (film) 2007 horror film by David Slade

30 Days of Night is a 2007 American vampire film based on the comic book miniseries of the same name. The film was directed by David Slade and stars Josh Hartnett and Melissa George. The story focuses on an Alaskan town beset by vampires as it enters into a 30-day-long polar night.

<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">RJ Mitte</span> American actor

Roy Frank "RJ" Mitte III is an American actor, best known for playing Walter White Jr. on the AMC series Breaking Bad (2008–2013). Like his character on the show, he has cerebral palsy. After moving to Hollywood in 2006, he began training with a personal talent manager. They sought acting opportunities where his disability would serve to educate viewers, which led him to audition for the role in Breaking Bad.

<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.

<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. The film was released on February 26, 2010, and grossed $54 million on a $20 million budget. It received mixed reviews according to Metacritic, with the critical summary on Rotten Tomatoes calling the film "tense, nicely shot, and uncommonly intelligent".

<i>Let Me In</i> (film) 2010 romantic horror film

Let Me In is a 2010 romantic horror film written and directed by Matt Reeves. It is a remake of the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In, which was based on the 2004 novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist. The film stars Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloë Grace Moretz, Elias Koteas, and Richard Jenkins. The plot follows a bullied 12-year-old boy who befriends and develops a romantic relationship with a child vampire girl in Los Alamos, New Mexico, during the early 1980s.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Front Row Wrestling</span>

Front Row Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion located in Rochester, New Hampshire. It is one of the few New England–based promotions outside Massachusetts, such as Pro Wrestling America Live in Maine and Joel Gertner's MXW Pro Wrestling in Connecticut, and is the only wrestling promotion active in the state of New Hampshire. Founded by wrestler Scott C. Despres in 2003, it is the sister promotion of Eastern Wrestling Alliance and an affiliate of the National Wrestling Alliance. FRW has co-promoted events and hosted sanctioned title defenses of both promotions.

The Box (<i>Fringe</i>) 2nd episode of the 3rd season of Fringe

"The Box" is the second episode of the third season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. The episode was co-written by Josh Singer and Graham Roland, and directed by Jeffrey Hunt. The third season spent its time alternating between the prime and parallel universes, and "The Box" was set in the former. It followed a mysterious box that when opened, killed whoever heard it. The fringe team of Fauxlivia, Peter, and Walter investigate, with unknown consequences to the creation of a doomsday device.

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

<i>Fargo</i> season 3 Third season of the American television series

The third season of Fargo, an American anthology dark comedy–crime drama television series created by Noah Hawley, premiered on April 19, 2017, on the basic cable network FX. The season had ten episodes, and its initial airing concluded on June 21, 2017. As an anthology, each Fargo season possesses its own self-contained narrative, following a set of characters in various settings in a connected shared universe.

<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.

<i>Ideal Home</i> (film) 2016 Film-Comedy by Andrew Fleming

Ideal Home is a 2018 American comedy-drama film, written and directed by Andrew Fleming and starring Steve Coogan, Paul Rudd, Alison Pill, Jake McDorman, and Jack Gore.

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 25, 2024.
  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 .