Advertisement

arts entertainmentMovies

Dallas' own Luke Wilson to star in the Texas high school football classic, '12 Mighty Orphans'

Filming will begin in early October in and around in Fort Worth, where the movie, in Luke's words, is derived "from a great book by the great writer Jim Dent"

Twelve Mighty Orphans did well as a book, and now it's bound for the silver screen as a movie titled 12 Mighty Orphans. And guess who it has in the lead? Dallas'  own Luke Wilson.

Authored by Jim Dent, the book spins the David-and-Goliath-like saga of a school built in Fort Worth for the purpose of housing and educating the orphans of Texas Freemasons — and how that same little school pulled off its own version of the impossible dream by advancing to the pinnacle of Texas high school football.

The man behind this rags-to-riches spellbinder was the incomparable Rusty Russell, who will be played by Luke Wilson. Russell accomplished the herculean task of taking a team full of undersized orphans and making them a high school football juggernaut, and he did it, no less, in the Depression era of the 1930s and 1940s. He coached at the home from 1927 to 1942.

The kids overcame hardship and death. They were scrawny. They wore scarred helmets and faded jerseys, but because of Russell, they were fearlessly unintimidated by any school they played because of their tirelessly devoted coach. Russell led the orphans to the state playoffs 10 times. He scarfed down peanuts and drove them around in a smoke-belching truck, but he could coach.

They were the Masonic Home Mighty Mites, whose inspirational coach will be played by the brother of fellow Hollywood actor Owen Wilson. Luke is one of three sons of acclaimed photographer Laura Wilson and the late Robert A. "Bob" Wilson. Luke himself lettered in football and track at St. Mark's School of Texas.

Advertisement
News Roundups

Catch up on the day's news you need to know.

Or with:

"I'm looking forward to it," Luke wrote to us in a text on Wednesday. "And being home. Gonna limit myself to Joe Ts once a week." He referred there, of course, to Fort Worth's beacon of Tex-Mex cuisine, Joe T. Garcia's.

Filming will begin in early October in and around Fort Worth, where the movie, in Luke's words, is derived "from a great book by the great writer Jim Dent. And I'm looking forward to working with a talented Texas crew and actors at authentic locations in and around Fort Worth."

Advertisement

In the interest of self-disclosure, I should note that Dent is a friend of mine. We went to school together at Southern Methodist University (where Rusty Russell became head football coach before his career ended). In recent years, Dent has faced his own dramas. At the moment, he's serving a prison sentence for DUI-related convictions, which The Dallas Morning News wrote about in a 2015 profile.

Dallas-based author and literary agent James Donovan noted this week that "I sold several books for Jim Dent, but [Twelve Mighty Orphans] is the one I always thought would make a great movie. It's a classic David-versus-Goliath story, enriched by the time — the Depression — and the fact that this school was so poor, the kids ran around barefoot in the summer, and had no money for uniforms or equipment. The first practice they had, they didn't even have a football. There's even a forbidden love story. Casting Luke Wilson is perfect — not only is he a Texan, but he's got that lean look that so many veterans had when they came back from the Great War."

Advertisement

Ty Roberts will direct the movie version of 12 Mighty Orphans, whose script he co-wrote with Lane Garrison. As for Luke's other work, the website Deadline reports that he's about to star opposite Ansel Elgort in the John Crowley-directed The Goldfinch, and the Atom Egoyan-directed Guest of Honour, both of which will premiere next month at the Toronto Film Festival. 

Brinton Bryan, who serves as a producer of the film, told us Wednesday that the four producers of the film all have Texas ties. Bryan hails from Granbury. Producers Michael De Luca and Angelique De Luca live in Fort Worth, and fellow producer Houston Hill hails from East Texas.

"We are all Texans. This is one home-grown movie," Bryan said Wednesday, adding with a laugh, "but with Hollywood flair." He noted that Michael De Luca served as a producer of three films that were each nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture — Moneyball (2011), Captain Phillips (2013) and Social Network (2010).