“Four Down,” a documentary based on Nick Schuyler and Jere Longman’s best-selling book “Not Without Hope,” will open the 20th edition of the Sunscreen Film Festival on April 24 in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Directed by Steven Cantor, the docu examines Schuyler’s harrowing 2009 rescue by the U.S. Coast Guard, 43 hours after a tragic boating accident in the Gulf of Mexico claimed the lives of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, and Schuyler’s best friend and former University of South Florida teammate Will Bleakley. Schuyler was found near death, clinging to the engine mount of the capsized vessel 70 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.
The 95-minute hybrid doc was filmed on location in St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Tampa, and at Lantica Studios in the Dominican Republic. For the film’s reenactment sequences, Cantor enlisted current commissioned U.S. Coast Guard members and officers. Interviews with Schuyler, members of the NFL community, and the U.S. Coast Guard involved in the massive search and rescue effort were also interviewed for the documentary.
Schuyler’s agent and Prix Productions managing partner, Rick French, who served as a producer on “Four Down,” said that the film’s world premiere at Sunscreen Film Festival was an obvious choice.
“We felt like debuting this film in St. Petersburg was really, really important because the story was set there, the U.S. Coast Guard sector is set there, and families and friends of the deceased, as well as Nick, are from there,” said French. “Part of the process of making this documentary is the process of showing not so much how these guys died, but how they fought to live, and a big part of that story is the family members who refused to give up hope, and the Coast Guard that against all odds were able to find Nick alive. They did that because they refused to quit. So, all of that played into why we wanted to be at the Sunscreen Film Festival.”
Sunscreen Fest founder Tony Armer added, “This 20th edition of the Sunscreen Film Festival is a time for reflection and celebration, and what better way to do so than with a story that honors resilience, commemorates the lives lost, and showcases the remarkable bravery of our local heroes.”
Gala Film financed the $5 million doc, with its founder and CEO Eric Schiermeyer and SVP of content and partnerships Jonathan Hazeldine executive producing alongside Schuyler, Snoop Dogg, and Sara Ramaker of Death Row Pictures, and Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, and Archie Gips of Unrealistic Ideas.
“Mark, Lev, and I are excited to be a part of this incredibly powerful documentary,” said Gips. “The film is truly a visceral experience that will linger with viewers well after the end credits.”
French describes the doc as an “immersive experience.”
“When I say immersive, it’s not a comfortable film to watch,” said French. “It takes the viewer right into the water with the guys fighting for their life. It’s just something very unique.”
While the film might make audiences uncomfortable, French isn’t worried about finding distribution.
“We know we will sell it,” said French. “Netflix originally put up development money for this project back when we were getting started. We don’t know if that’s where we will go at this point. We don’t have to go there. We have options. So we are going see what the market looks like for it.”
The doc’s festival release comes ahead of the long-awaited narrative film “Not Without Hope,” an adaptation of Schuyler and Longman’s book starring Josh Duhamel and Zachary Levi. French, who began repping Schuyler immediately after the accident and helped put his book deal together, is the co-owner of the IP rights to the tome and derivatives. He serves as a producer on “Not Without Hope.”
After the book’s 2010 release, French fielded numerous pitches for the movie rights before setting the project up with Mark Wahlberg, who held the rights for 18 months until French set the project up at Relativity Media, which attached Dwayne Johnson to play Schuyler. The script became ensnared in Relativity’s bankruptcy protection proceedings after the company filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2015. At one point, “Not Without Hope” was slated to be made as a film starring Miles Teller, but production delays due to COVID scrambled those plans.
French said that “Not Without Hope” will likely come out in the U.S. later this year.
“We have domestic offers on the table from multiple parties for a wide domestic release in the fall,” said French. “We are just trying to make the decision. We haven’t accepted either of the two offers that we are seriously considering yet.”
The goal, French said, is “to have both the documentary and the narrative support one another.”
“Four Down” is produced by French, Cantor, and Jamie Schutz of Stick Figure Productions, and Stanley Buchthal and David Koh of Dakota Media Group.
