the impossible true story - Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures ...

The film, shot on location in Louisiana and Kentucky, is produced by Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray, who founded Mayhem Pictures
(“The Rookie,” “Miracle,” “Invincible”) . Mike Rich (“Finding Forrester,” “The Rookie,” “Radio”) wrote the screenplay . The creative team also
includes Academy Award®-winning cinematographer Dean Semler (“Dances With Wolves,” “We Were Soldiers,” “Apocalypto,” “2012”),
production designer Tom Sanders (“Saving Private Ryan,” “We Were Soldiers,” “Apocalypto,” “Eagle Eye”), costume designers Michael Boyd
(“Gettysburg,” “We Were Soldiers”) and Julie Weiss (“Time Traveler’s Wife,” “Shanghai”), and editor John Wright (“X-Men,” “The Passion of
the Christ,” “Apocalypto,” “The Incredible Hulk”) . Nick Glennie-Smith (“We Were Soldiers”) composed the score .
“Secretariat” hits theaters on Oct . 8, 2010 .
THE MAKINGS OF A MOVIE
Big Red to the Big Screen
Known as a “superhorse,” Secretariat captured the imagination of people around the world — not just horse-racing enthusiasts; his
powers transcended anything that had been seen before, winning the holy grail of racing, the Triple Crown, in heart-pounding fashion .
A triumvirate of races open only to 3-year-old horses, the Triple Crown begins with the famed Kentucky Derby, a 1 1/4-mile “Run for the
Roses .” The “middle jewel” in the Crown is the 1 3/16-mile Preakness Stakes, the “final jewel,” the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes . Secretariat
didn’t make it easy on himself . He lost the Wood Memorial, the last big race before the Kentucky Derby, causing supporters and detractors
to doubt his prospects . He took the lead at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness only after running dead last for most of those contests .
Finally, at Belmont, he literally hit his stride, winning by a record-pulverizing
31 lengths .
“ESPN compiled a list of the 100 top athletes of the 20th century and
Secretariat was 35th — and the only non-human on that list,” says producer
Mark Ciardi . “That’s how unbelievable his presence was . What makes it really
interesting is going underneath that story . We knew we had the ending,
but not many people know about Penny’s story, and that was incredibly
compelling to us .”
Ciardi and producer Gordon Gray, who collectively form Mayhem Pictures,
have a history of chronicling iconic and uplifting sports events in movies, from “The Rookie” to “Miracle” and “Invincible .” “Secretariat”
began when screenwriter Mike Rich, who wrote “The Rookie” and “Miracle,” approached Mayhem about the legendary thoroughbred .
“He is a big fan of horse racing, and he approached us with the idea of doing a film about Big Red, and of course, we loved the story and
thought it was a great idea,” Ciardi says . “Mike felt like he had found a way in, which was through Penny’s story . Sports movies typically
follow the journey of an underdog, but with Secretariat, on the surface, that element didn’t exist as much, though certainly the horse
had some issues to overcome to win the Triple Crown . But, really, it’s her story as much as the horse’s, and she definitely had to overcome
steep odds to succeed .”
Of course, in order to bring the tale to the big screen, Ciardi and Gray needed Chenery’s blessing . Known as The First Lady of Horse
Racing, Chenery had been approached before and she had turned them all down .
“Many, many people approached Penny and tried to make this story,
but she held on to her rights for a long time. We got very lucky. She liked Disney
and the team we put together. And she was very involved in the movie, from the
early conversations through production. To have her be a part of it was very
important to us, and she was tremendously excited about it.”
— Mark Ciardi, Producer
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