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Contact: University Communications & Marketing
Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
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Movie industry comes to West Georgia
November 24, 2004
CARROLLTON, GA - A movie project is a work in progress, says local producer and casting director Shay Bentley-Griffin, who has worked for years in bringing the motion picture industry — and the jobs that go with it — to west Georgia.
One
of Bentley-Griffin’s current projects is “Cheer The Brave,”
a feature film documenting the “tragedy to triumph” journey
of the University of West Georgia cheerleading squad that battled
back from a 1997 van accident which killed two cheerleaders and the coach
to win the national championship for the past three years
A long-time player in the film industry, having worked with directors such as Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Robert Altman, Wes Craven and Sam Rami, Bentley-Griffin has cast more than 200 television and film projects. Through her work in promoting the Georgia film industry, she met Richard Mix, president of Carrollton Film Partners and the executive producer of “Cheer The Brave.”
“We both discovered we had a real serious interest in west Georgia,” Bentley-Griffin, who lives on a farm between Rome and Carrollton, said. “That started a particular mission for us both to educate people and motivate people as to what the film industry is about. I love the area and have tried to promote west Georgia to the film industry.”
Mix brought the cheerleader story idea to Bentley-Griffin and Sam Hensley, Jr., a Marietta-based actor, writer and attorney. The three agreed that the project was worth pursuing.
“That sort of created the triangle of people who thought that this was a wonderful story worth telling,” Bentley-Griffin pointed out, as her assistant Reed Barrickman set up a camera for this day’s casting call for an upcoming miniseries about Elvis.
“(The process has) been a journey and we’re still on the journey. It’s hard to make people who are in other businesses realize that it is so rare (for a movie) to happen quickly. The story that we want to tell takes time. You have to keep working and be ever so sensitive to telling the story that UWG wants told.”
Even before a script was written for Cheer The Brave, Bentley-Griffin was active with Carroll Tomorrow executives in promoting the film industry in the region and creating incentives to bring more film work here. Carroll Tomorrow is an organization devoted to recruiting industry to Carroll County
“We had a lot of people in Carrollton that were interested,” Bentley-Griffin said. “West Georgia is in the position of being close enough to Atlanta to attract film work and yet not so far where it would be impossible.”
Bentley-Griffin is well known for her keen eye in finding talent and the film industry has recognized her casting talents. The Casting Society of America awarded her the organization’s highest honor for her work in casting “Andersonville” an original TNT movie directed by the legendary John Frankenheimer. It was the first time a casting director outside of Los Angeles or New York had won this award. Bentley-Griffin also received an Emmy nomination for her work on HBO Original “Miss Evers’s Boys” and yet another for work on the network’s “A Lesson Before Dying.”
One of the key roles for “Cheer The Brave” — that of UWG Athletic Director Ed Murphy — will be filled by Marietta native Shuler Hensley, who has become an international talent on stage and screen. He has appeared in Broadway and London productions and as the Frankenstein monster in this summer’s big-budget motion picture “Van Helsing.”
The vital role of UWG Cheerleading Coach Sherry Cooney, who took over the squad after the accident, has yet to be filled but Bentley-Griffin is hopeful that will be resolved soon.
“Our mission right now is really working on Sherry’s role,” she explained. “We have some feelers out and we’re trying to see who we can attract to play her role because that is the role the story centers around. To me it’s somewhat like Miracle (the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team), except that this story has a greater level of loss to get to the accomplishment and triumph. That’s what makes this a special story. You see it as an inspiration.”
Casting actors is based on looks but there are other factors involved. On this day, Bentley-Griffin was auditioning actors for an upcoming miniseries on Elvis. “Doing a famous person is tough because you have an audience that knows already what he looked like. In “Cheer The Brave,” there is a certain amount of that. We’ll try to keep some of the characters looking similar. But because they are not national figures, we won’t be as restrictive as we would on a project like Elvis. Looks and presence all figure into (casting) but not the least is talent. The tragic side of (casting) is having the talent but not the look.”
One Carrollton casting call for “Cheer The Brave” underlines Bentley-Griffin’s faith that there is acting talent in the west Georgia area.
“We weren’t really trying to cast any roles,” she explained. “We’re trying to find out what was there. There were some areas where we thought we could do some casting. Our goal is to bring in as few (outside actors) as we have to.”
Indeed, Bentley-Griffin’s passion is bringing more and more film work to Georgia, as illustrated by her Silver Dogwood Award from the Women in Film’s 25th Anniversary Banquet. The award honored her leadership and unwavering efforts on behalf of the Georgia film industry and a Screen Actors Guild award for her “bold vision and outstanding contribution to the Georgia Film Industry.” She is respected so m uch that Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed her as vice chair of the Georgia Film, Video and Music Commission, which works to bring entertainment projects and its related business to Georgia.
“I believe that is important to maintain a presence in the film industry to recruit more business and the jobs that go with it,” Bentley-Griffin said.
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