Basketball movie to be shot in Winnipeg

Winnipeg-area basketball players have a chance to star in a feature film about the NBA.
The story, about the first black player to join the league, Nathaniel (Sweetwater) Clifton, is being made into a movie that will be shot in Winnipeg. Set in the 1950s, the movie begins shooting in April, but the company in charge of recruiting players to fill out the cast is putting out the call now.

'It was the Globetrotter era. It was the very beginning of show time basketball.'— Brendan Kirsch, Sportsarc

"We are going to cast the basketball players from Winnipeg, from the Winnipeg area, because we quite frankly believe that in a sports movie it's easier to teach an athlete how to act than an actor how to perform a sport," said Brendan Kirsch, CEO of Sportsarc, which has worked on more than 20 feature films and 200 episodes of TV.

Kirsch said he's looking for 65 players of all abilities, more tall and lean than muscular, between the ages of 18 and 34.

"Basketball back then . . . everybody was much more lean rather than huge and muscular and you know the kind of athlete we have today. So it was just a different look," said Kirsch. "It was a lot of long hair, a lot of buzz cuts, and you know, it was the [Harlem] Globetrotter era. It was the very beginning of show time basketball."

Anyone interested in taking part of the film, which will be called Sweetwater, can pre-register on Sportsarc's website, www.sportsarc.net.Read more:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/basketball/story/2009/02/18/basketball-movie-winnipeg.html#ixzz0txIw8x67