Walt Disney Pictures "McFarland" will film in San Joaquin Valley, California.
AB Media Publishing, LLC
Update 10-16-2013: NEW open casting call in Santa Clarita, CA has been scheduled for October 17, 2013 seeking athletes. Details below.
Update 9-9-2013: NEW open casting call in Los Angeles has been scheduled for September 15th. Details below.
Mayhem Pictures is now set to begin filming the Walt Disney Pictures sports drama feature film "McFarland" in Bakersfield and Los Angeles beginning in October, 2013.
The film "McFarland" tells the true story of Jim "Blanco" White, a high school track and field coach who inspired his team to greatness on and off the field. Gary Smith of Sports Illustrated wrote, "No one can figure it out, how the runners with the shortest legs and the grimmest lives began winning everything once Blanco took over the program in 1980. Jim and his wife Cheryl invested endless time and love in the youth. They did much more than was required of them so the boys could receive what they otherwise would not. They were always there for them, pushing them on and always taking them on trips, to movies in a town with a theater, and on fishing trips.
Jim White's students all were from families who were from Mexican farm worker families, and faced tremendous challenges in their personal and academic lives. McFarland, population 8,011 in 1990, is something closer to a village transplanted from south of the border. Nine in 10 residents are of Mexican descent. One-third come from the village Huanusco, in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico.
Starring in "McFarland" is two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Costner playing the role of Coach Jim White. Costner has seen a career revitalization starting with the miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys", for which he garnered a Primetime Emmy Award. He then played Jonathan Kent in "Man of Steel". He recently completed starring roles in "Jack Ryan" with Keira Knightley and Cris Pine, "Draft Day" with Jennifer Garner, and "Three Days to Kill" with Amber Heard and Hailee Steinfeld. Costner is no stranger to sports related films, having starring in "Bull Durham," "Field of Dreams," "For Love of the Game," and the previously mentions "Draft Day". Two-time Golden Globe Award nominee Maria Bello will also star in "McFarland" playing Coster's wife Cheryl.
Critically acclaimed New Zealand filmmaker Niki Caro is directing "McFarland" from a screenplay written by Grant Thompson, based on the 1997 Los Angeles Times article titled "A Labor of Love for Boys of McFarland". Caro wrote and directed the Academy Award nominated film "Whale Rider" starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, and also directed the Warner Bros. Pictures film "North Country" starring Academy Award winner Charlize Theron, and she wrote/produced/directed the fascinating romantic film "The Vintner's Luck" starring Academy Award nominated actors Vera Farmiga and Keisha Castle-Hughes. Caro also penned the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures film "The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky," based on the true story of a boy who died in the 1988 Pam Am Flight 103 airline terrorist bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Mayhem Pictures' Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray are producing "McFarland". Ciardi and Gray previously produced three Disney sports drama feature films - "Miracle," "Invincible," and "Secretariat". They also produced the Walt Disney Pictures films "The Game Plan," "The Rookie," and the upcoming film "Million Dollar Arm" and "Wish List". The sports film productions by Mayham Pictures is in part due to the fact that Mark Ciardi is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played one major league season for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1987.
'McFarland' Open Casting Call Details (new 10-17-2013 open casting call details below)
NEW Disney Feature Film "McFarland" Open Casting Call Details
Mark Ellis, the sports coordinator for "McFarland" has scheduled an open casting call seeking approx. 100 men, ages 18 to about 28, to serve as extras in the film to play the opponent cross country runners that will run against the McFarland teams. It is NOT a requirement to be cross country or track runners, however they do want athletes especially with running experience. There will be a lot of running scenes. Athletes under college scholarship for cross country or track should not try out for the film, since the compensation they would receive could present a compliance problem as far as the NCAA is concerned.
Where:
Pete Reese Athletic Field
The Master’s College
21726 Placerita Canyon Road
Santa Clarita, CA 91321
Click here for directions to Pete Reese Athletic Field.
When:
Thursday October 17, 2013
9:00am - 1:00pm
All talent including minors and foreign actors MUST be legally eligible to work in the state of California and in the United States.
The 2013 Los Angeles Actors Resource Guide eBook comes with free quarterly updates and includes the following information and documents for adults, minors, and foreign talent who would like to work as an actor or extra on film and television productions in Los Angeles and the United States:
• USA Child Actor Work Permit Requirements
• California Child Actor Permit Application
• California Minors Summary Chart
• Child Actor Coogan Trust Deposit Instructions
• California Division of Labor Standards Offices
• Immigration Work Permit Information
• Non-Immigrant Visa Application
In addition to the following Los Angeles Actors Resources:
• Audition Tips
• How To Make an Audition Video
• Los Angeles Casting Directors List
• Los Angeles Extras Casting Directors List
• Los Angeles Talent Agents List
• General Talent Agent Information
• Los Angeles Acting Classes List
• Acting Classes for Young Actors in Los Angeles
• Los Angeles Headshot Photographers List
• Sample Actors Resume
• Sample Beginning Actors Resume
• Sample Cover Letters
• Entertainment Industry Terminology
• Miscellaneous Los Angeles Resources
• Actors Unions
• PDF Users Guides
The 2013 Actors Resource Guide eBooks are available here.
Principal Actor Casting
See the post titled Headshot and Resume Information regarding how to submit to casting directors for acting roles.
No phone calls or personal drop-offs.
Los Angeles & Bakersfield:
Vanessa Rodriguez
Walken/Jaffe Casting
6671 Sunset Blvd.
Building 1509
Suite 104
Los Angeles, CA 90028
NOTE:
I highly recommend that your 8x10 color headshot and resume along with the cover letter be sent in a 9 x 12 Clear Full Face Window Envelope with the photo visible in the window.
Click Here to purchase 9 x 12 Clear Full Face Window Envelopes.
The casting directors address should be written in all capital letters on the solid side of the envelope, with the name of the project you are submitting for written directly above the casting directors name. If the role that you are submitting for is available, it should also be written above the casting directors name.
Example:
"Project Name"
"Role of _______"
CASTING DIRECTOR NAME
CASTING DIRECTOR ADDRESS
CASTING DIRECTOR CITY, STATE, ZIP CODE
Extras Casting
Los Angeles & Bakersfield:
Dixie Webster-Davis
Dixie Casting
4924 Balboa Blvd.
Suite 432
Encino, CA 91316
Registration Line: (818) 920‐9900
www.dixiecasting.com
Register as "inactive" for free account.
www.facebook.com/mcfarlandextras
Film Crew and Production Staff
Experienced film crew members and production staff available to work in the Bakersfield area can submit a resume to the following:
mcfarlandresumes@gmail.com
ABSOLUTELY NO ACTOR OR EXTRAS SUBMISSIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS. This is for crew and production staff only.
Production Companies:
Do NOT send photos and resumes to the production companies, as they will most likely end up being thrown away. They do not cast the films, rather they hire casting directors who sort through the thousands of submissions.
McFarland Production Office
5K Productions
27420 Avenue Scott
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
Mayhem Pictures
725 Arizona Ave
Suite 302
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Walt Disney Pictures
500 S Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
Producers: Gordon Gray, Mark Ciardi
Writer: Grant Thompson
Director: Nikki Caro
Starring:
Kevin Costner - Jim White
Maria Bello - Cheryl White
Story:
Football coach Jim White has hit rock bottom in his volatile career, and gets a gig at McFarland, a wretched, ill-equipped school in a rural area of central California, where the student body is dirt poor and 100 percent Mexican-American. Jim soon realizes that while his students are too slender for either football or basketball, they have near-infinite physical endurance and can run like whippets. Sensing that cross-country might be a path out of his exile, Jim starts to coach an all brown team in a state where the champions have traditionally been all-blond.
