Taking The HighRoad with The Perfect Game
By Online Editor and Critic Todd Konrad
Producing entertainment that is both socially responsible without being preachy and still fun is always a tall order, but two men have thus far been able to successfully bridge that gap. David Salzberg and Christian Tureaud have spent considerable time and energy in building up their latest enterprise, HighRoad Entertainment from the ground up. After years of fruitful, professional partnership (garnering various awards and acclaim) under the auspices of such noted figures like producer Peter Guber, both men have decided to step out on their own and bring to the world inspirational, engaging fare designed to unite people mainly through the always relevant prism of sports.
I recently spoke with both David and Christian about the company and projects they have in the works (first and foremost The Perfect Game, based on the true story of an underdog Mexican Little League baseball team which in 1957 became the first non-American team to win the Little League World Series), and it was an interesting encounter to say the least. While both come from entirely different backgrounds, their ability to not only engage with each other but focus on a single objective (in this particular case chatting with me) is uncanny. While they’re two separate guys, at many times in our conversation, it almost felt like I was engaging (and trying to keep up frankly) with one mind. Together though, both were bursting with energy and enthusiasm for their work and one can only imagine the possibilities yet untapped by this pair.
IFQ: Could you briefly discuss the inception of High Road and what kinds of material you wish to produce under its auspices?
David Salzberg: Christian and I have actually been working together for a number of years; we originally met over ten ago when I was an executive with Peter Guber at Mandalay. I had started the Sports Action division, done long-form movies with Mandalay Television and in ’98 Peter (Guber) invited me to come in and start a division called Mandalay Sports Action Entertainment. Right about that time, I’d met Christian. He had a company which was involved sports technology internet that actually really worked. It had to do with digital collectibles online, basically one of the first of its kind at that time. He had all the licenses but he didn’t have Hollywood licenses so Peter introduced us. We became good buddies working together and became major shareholders in his company. So we go back about ten, eleven years together; after about five years he exited his company and came to work as my producing partner at Mandalay.
We ended up running three divisions there, Sports Action, an inspiration film division, and a division called Integrated Media which had to do with working with big brands. Sports Action, Integrated Media, and this inspiration film thing all kind of went together in a crazy puzzle but it worked. We made a lot of product at Mandalay, won a bunch of awards with Peter and a couple of years ago we decided that we wanted to make a deal with Mandalay as equity partners. We weren’t able to make the deal and at that point we decided to leave. We love Peter, he’s an unbelievable guy, a great mentor and genius, Oscar winner, but it was time for us to instead of working for the man to be the man. And we co-founded HighRoad with a group of our friends and investors, set up shop at Universal, and have been working on a number of projects since then.
We have three films that have been in some form of production or completion or distribution, plus a number of new products, film, some television, and then some other business work that we’re doing. But all in the same idea of HighRoad, working on things that unite not divide people, working on things that are positive, green, and socially responsible. They may not always be positive stories, but there will be some sort of redemptive value in the stories that we do that resonate with an audience, something that makes people feel something
Christian Tureaud: …to cause an action possibly.
DS: Yeah, we’ve found that what we wanted to do (and have worked on for a number of years) is something that a lot of people are interested in today, not only the audience but a lot of these big corporations that are trying to do things differently to reach and connect with their audience. And the benefit for the filmmaker in working with the big brands is, if done the right way, they come with distribution. They’re in a ton of stores or are reaching their audiences through their media and marketing. You can create a value that is really good for both the product and for the brand supporter that helps you reach the audience. The best thing that Christian and I have going, it’s funny because I’m from a New England, Boston liberal background with educated hippie parents. Christian’s dad played with the Cowboys and Michigan, Palm Beach and Republican. So we see things very differently, but we respect each other enough that we can agree on how to get things done.
CT: We have the same end goal; we just might get there a different way.
IFQ: Well, in the end, as long as you can both get to the same place that’s all that really matters.
CT: It’s positive because you get to have a healthy debate and see both sides, and if you’re objective and respect the other person’s views hopefully sometimes it’ll open your eyes. It starts with respect though you have to have respect for the other person and his views.
DS: But it’s good because especially if we’re trying to reach a wider audience, coming and looking at things from different perspectives rather than either all conservative or all liberal, especially when we’re trying to do things that have some sort of charitable cause to them.
CT: We just had a movie called Running the Sahara that we packaged and produced. We sold it to Showtime and are real excited about it because there was a charitable component created alongside of the project called H20 Africa. The goal of which is to create awareness and try and solve the clean water problem in Africa. So for every ten thousand dollars we raised, we were able to drill a well that supplied a thousand villagers with clean water. We already raised over six million dollars before the film ever came out. So we have a goal to raise over ten million, hopefully upward to fifty or a hundred million dollars over the next several years and really make an impact.
DS: And that’s a good example of a team effort in how many people were involved in that: Matt Damon and his partners, the director James Moll, Hans Zimmer, Bono and the One campaign and the Independent Producer Alliance which is a group that specializes more in Christian films out of the Carolinas. Great group of guys but again it was a matter of getting a whole bunch of different people from different backgrounds together for a cause and make a movie.
CT: But we had a challenge with that in the very beginning because Matt Damon, Live Planet, and his partners that came up with the concept originally are more on the liberal side obviously. And we had big Christian conservative investors that had been supporting a project we did prior called The Perfect Game, a feature-length film that’s coming out this summer ’09. Traditionally, the hardcore Christian conservatives don’t really get along with liberal Hollywood and we had to tightwalk the rope between them and said “let’s not let religious views, political views, or any other views get in the way. Let’s just let the cause rise to the top and focus what good we can do if we all come together” So the backstory on that one is really cool in how we all came together and put the bipartisanship aside, rose to the occasion, and did something that will make a positive impact in a lot of people’s lives.
IFQ: Speaking of The Perfect Game, I’d like to segue into discussing that project a bit more specifically. How did the film’s subject matter come to your attention in the first place?
DS: We’ve worked on a number of different sports projects and movies over the years. And Peter had been involved with such films as Rudy, so a lot of product came our way when we were there or we were researching and digging around to find subject matter to get involved in. We met a guy that had gone down amongst a group of people who had been trying to get the rights to this story. He actually came to us, a first-time writer, and said “look I don’t know a lot about the business, I’ve just been tangentially around it”. His background was not in entertainment but he had written a script and gotten the rights. We had initially read the script and were like “the story’s great but the script needs work” , which led to a whole other thing but we ended up going down to Mexico and meeting with the guys that were some of the players with the writer…
CT: …and due to our own diligence found out that it was literally Mexico’s 1980 hockey story. It was their Miracle on Ice, the one time their country rose to the occasion and beat the Americans…
DS: …in an American game.
CT: It was a story that the entire country was proud of and for fifty years people in Hollywood had been trying to get the rights to this story, but could never get them. So this particular gentleman got the rights, but was a first-time writer and really didn’t know what to do.
DS: You know how easy it is to make, first of all get your script read, but get your first film made?
CT: We having an interest in this sort of product and being sports guys and having friends in Mexico knew how powerful and meaningful this story was to Latinos, not just Mexicans, but all Latinos because it was a hero’s story. So we engaged with the writer and went on the path to help him make this story…
DS: …start the rewriting process, raise the funding…
CT: That was about three and a half, four years ago…
IFQ: Overall, how was the process of producing the film, i.e. finding the money, shooting, etc.?
CT: There were a lot of challenges because this is the independent world…
DS: We didn’t finance it, it didn’t go through the Mandalay deal, it was passed on because it wasn’t…
CT: …big enough…
DS: …it was not a big-budget, Enemies at the Gate, sort of score. It wasn’t destined to have an A-list star…
CT: We needed to do this in a true independent, guerrilla fashion. So what we did was we went and started talking to a bunch of investors all over the country and world actually because this has an international flair, especially down in Mexico…
DS: We pitched it to a lot of the traditional studios simultaneously too so we were looking for financing either through a traditional model, based on what we could get in making the movie with a studio or a mini-studio and get distribution at the same time. And we were focused on independent because we were used to always raising money for projects. Fortunately and unfortunately, that’s one of the processes of being a producer.
CT: What we did though is, what David said, go to the studios…
DS: …most of them passed…
CT: We got some studios that were interested in being the distributor if we were able to raise the money independently…
DS: …for production…
CT: …if the film came out the way we said it was going to come out then they were interested in distributing it. So that was good, we tried then to build some components to help raise the money. We got some distributors to say that they would distribute it and they put that in writing for us. We then used that as a leverage tool to go raise money by showing we had distributors interested; at the same time, we went to corporations. We went to a bunch of big brands and because this film touches baseball, and Little League baseball specifically, we went to Major league, Minor League, and Little League for their support from a marketing standpoint.
DS: As we went around and talked to all these different groups, it was funny because older people remembered the story, sports fanatics remembered the story. We got more and more information, especially from the Little League people, about how big a deal this story of these people could be because these kids dealt with being destitute factory workers in their own country. Then when they got to America, they dealt with racism because it happened in 1957…
CT: …they didn’t speak the language or have any money…
DS: …they came in through the South, at the same time they dealt with problems with Mexican folks and American folks, they also had all these people who supported them and saw something happening that was really unique. These kids had no right to believe they could do any of this stuff; they really thought they were going to play one game, lose, sightsee for two days, and then go home. Literally they packed one pair of underwear in a brown paper bag and wore the uniforms. What happened to us though was as we got to meet different people from New York, Kentucky, Mexico City, Atlanta, LA, etc. all these people were saying “wow”. And it’s these kids on a journey and the underdog story, and it’s anti-racism, all this stuff that told us “no matter what, you have to get this thing made”.
CT: …and it was funny because the more we pitched the vision of the movie, people said “if the movie turns out as well as your pitch, we’re in”
DS: That’s the big thing, you got distribution potentially, you’ve got a script now that you’re starting to package, get actors, and attach different components to add value to the film. The funny thing is everybody says the same thing, “yeah, yeah, yeah, you’ve made a movie…but it’s got to be good”. Peter had a funny quote he said; because we have a lot of people we consider we have good relationships with in town and we were like “oh, we’ll go to our friends.” And then he says, “here’s the thing, you have a lot of friends in town but if the movie sucks nobody’s going to buy it. And if you go to somebody that doesn’t like you at all but the movie’s great, you’re going to make a deal.” And that’s the funny thing, because that tells you that you have to put ego out of the way because there’s so much ego involved in these things. But you know something, making these things and getting them out there is not for the faint of heart.
IFQ: Especially these days with all the economic troubles and all the different specialty divisions that shuttered over the past year.
DS: And the funny thing is that if you’re a producer who can do everything, develop it, write it, get it made, get distribution, all that, you still generally only get the calls that are major problems.
CT: We’re still waiting for the glamour.
DS: Yeah, has it happened yet? (laughs)
CT: We’re firefighers, you put out every fire out along the way. Whether it’s finance-related or talent-related…
DS: …distribution or the brand, or something. There’s always something. If you’re going to be in this business, the thing is people who had a lot of success like Guber or Barry Kemp, who was a showrunner for Coach and Newhart and worked on some big films like Catch Me If You Can, would all tell us how gritty and tough it is, etc. You say to yourself “they’re just trying to block the entrance, it can’t be this rough”. But it is (laughs). But I guess everything good is right? You just have to have the determination that you’re going to get through the rougher times, it really becomes about the journey not the destination.
CT: If you have passion and love what you’re doing, you’ll be successful…
DS: …which was a big motivator for us to exit the traditional deal we had and set off on our own. We picked a good time to set off on our own too with the market crashing. It’s a good time to leave the tenured studio-type gig, and become independent.
CT: Yeah, the thing about David and I, which separates us from most independent filmmakers as well as a lot of people in this business, is that we have the creative side, but we’re business guys. We’re former entrepreneurs, former CEOs, we’ve had over a hundred employees and raised tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, in our career both individually and collectively…
DS: We’ve actually made all the projects and combined, and I don’t mean this arrogantly by any means, but combined we’ve won maybe 135 different awards over the last ten plus years. So we’ve won festivals…
CT: …and we’ve just created product for the marketplace…
DS: …that people have liked, at least some of it (laughs)
CT: We understand Wall Street and how to raise money even though it’s difficult currently in this environment we see it as an opportunity. We’re in the process of putting together a slate to raise a hundred and fifty million over a five year period for about ten to fifteen pictures. We’re focused in the huge space of family/PG/inspirational/feel-good content. We have corporations and brands that have worked with us both individually and collectively over the years, who believe in us, have made money with us, and want to be apart of the products we make in the future in addition to the ones we’re doing presently. So we see the current as yes scary and having to be smarter than you would have traditionally or at least in the 90’s, but it’s an opportunity.
IFQ: Well, to wrap things up here and look ahead towards the future could you briefly discuss any other projects you have in the works now at HighRoad?
DS: We had the fortunate experience of working with Cheech Marin on The Perfect Game, who plays the priest Esteban in the film. We spent a lot of time with him and found that he’s really a renaissance man. He had written a script, which he’d slipped us during the process of making the film called Angel of Oxnard. We read it and loved it. So as we were working with Cheech, we realized that here’s a guy who’s done over like fifty films, did the television series with Don Johnson (Nash Bridges), in addition to being very involved in the arts and charity work. He’s about to get honored for legal work he’s been doing for ethnic people in non-urban areas too.
Normally, his feet and his mouth are going the same way and he’s a pro that gets the business. He realizes that things happen and gets crazy but doesn’t get fazed by it. He’s kind of like a fixer in that way. The story though is about this kid up in Oxnard; he’s cynical and ends up having this life-changing experience that affects the whole community up there. It’s got a spiritual element, a Latino element, like we also have in The Perfect Game, and we really want to target…
CT: …it’s spiritual in a light-hearted way through comedy…
DS: Yes, it’s not heavy-handed but fun. Cheech is working with us on it as the director, writer, and he’ll probably have a role in it as well…
CT: …and he’s packaging a lot of his Latino talent as well…
DS: …his friends, and it’s really a very, wide group from some very young actors to legends he’s worked with that have read the script and felt the same thing we did. We’re looking to get that going at the end of spring/early summer this year so we’re in pre-production on that. In addition we’re working with comedian Chris Titus, who’s a friend of ours and a writing partner, from the Titus show that was on Fox. He’s a great writer that wrote a lot of the episodes and was involved in them over at Fox. Anyway, he wrote a script called Five Seconds that we were very interested in before, optioned it, and now just re-optioned it. It’s a father and son coming-of-age story set in the world of drag racing; it’s interesting because Chris wrote it and is going to star in it.
And we’re again connecting the brands, in this case the NHRA audience who watches drag racing is 77 million viewers. So it’s not as much as NASCAR but they still have a real strong audience; so we want to make a great movie but we know we have a target audience. And again after having worked with all these brands over the years, you understand where they’re coming from in how they want to reach their audience. You learn that it’s not necessarily about placing product in the film but how the film makes people feel about the product. And especially with distribution so fragmented now, with digital and everything else happening, getting a film distributed and an audience able to see it is harder than making the movie these days. So you have to put your thinking cap on beyond the creative, which is critical obviously, and think of what’s the best way to reach an audience and hopefully get your investment back. If you can get your investors their money back, they’ll let you make more movies.
CT: You have to find, like David said a minute ago, an audience. That’s why we’re actually going to be launching a new division, HighRoad Sports Entertainment. The reason being we see sports as a great vehicle because it has these audiences like NHRA which has 77 million fans built in. The Perfect Game has a Little League fan base, as well as a Major League and Minor League legion of baseball players and fans. You’re talking about a hundred million people that love baseball in this country alone. So if you can really be smart when looking for a project, fall in love with it creatively but also put the business cap on and find out if it actually has an audience. Who is going to buy the tickets or DVDs?
DS: Or who’s online that’s interested in VOD? One thing we’ve found is that we love working with college audiences because they are the future; as things change in how films and projects reach an audience, they’re at the forefront of using new technology. In the end, it’s still incredibly difficult getting something made now but also incredibly rewarding when it’s done.
CT: And also, with great risk comes great reward. The opportunity is huge if you can figure it out.
For more information about HighRoad Entertainment, go to http://www.highroadent.com/home.htm
To learn more about The Perfect Game and Running The Sahara respectively, go to http://www.theperfectgamemovie.com/ and http://www.runningthesahara.com/
*Photos Courtesy of Erik Tran