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CHUBBCO FILM CO. AND VISIONBOX PICTURES
ANNOUNCE PRODUCTION OF “BELIEVE IN ME”
Los Angeles, CA - May XX, 2004 – Los Angeles-based Visionbox Pictures and ChubbCo Film
Co. have partnered to produce Believe In Me, announced Cotty Chubb, President of ChubbCo
Film Co. and John Manulis, CEO and lead producer of Visionbox Pictures. Janet Hirshenson
and Jane Jenkins (Somethings Gotta Give, A Beautiful Mind, Parenthood) are casting the film,
which the producers are planning to shoot in New Mexico early this fall, fully backed by an
equity investor group from that state.
Based on the true story detailed in Harold Keith's classic girls' sports novel "Brief Garland",
Believe In Me was adapted and will be directed by Robert Collector (Memoirs of an Invisible
Man, Red Heat). Chubb (Dark Blue, Eve's Bayou, Hoffa) and Manulis (Tortilla Soup, The
Basketball Diaries, Swing Kids) are producing.
Believe in Me is a period sports movie set in the mid-60's, the story of a young man whose
coaching dreams seem dashed when he's assigned the girls' basketball team at a rural highschool, a dead-end in that pre-“Title IX” time. Through the course of the movie, the girls and the
coach find ways to earn each other's trust, and despite the opposition of the conservative town
fathers, learn how to play to win.
Chubb and Manulis jointly said, "This is a terrific movie for girls and their dads, written with
sympathetic humor and with love for the challenges of sport, adolescence, and coaching, itself a
kind of parenting. Bob has an original and honest voice, a great story with a wonderful lead
character, and the chops to bring it all to the screen."
Robert Collector, has directed two low-budget feature films Nightflyers and Red Heat, has had
producing/writing deals with Warner Brothers and Fox, and has written for every studio, most TV
networks, and Showtime cable network. Mr. Collector has worked with producers Art Linson,
John Davis, Scott Rudin, Roger Birnbaum, Joe Roth, Peter Guber and John Peters, Jeff Apple,
and many more. He has worked with directors Wolfgang Petersen, Roger Spottiswoode, Dick
Donner, John Carpenter, Jeremiah Chechik, and Ridley Scott among others. For several years
Collector has also served as a professional writing mentor to the UCLA graduate film
department.
ChubbCo Film Co., Cotty Chubb has produced seven movies, most recently Dark Blue,
starring Kurt Russell and directed by Ron Shelton; Pootie Tang with Chris Rock; Eve's Bayou,
Kasi Lemmons' debut picture, with Samuel L. Jackson; Hoffa, starring Jack Nicholson and
directed by and co-starring Danny DeVito; Charles Burnett's much acclaimed To Sleep with
Anger; Waiting for the Light with Shirley MacLaine and Teri Garr; and Cherry 2000, starring
Melanie Griffith. He was associate producer on the Taviani brothers' Good Morning, Babylon,
and the co-producer of The Crow. He is an executive producer of Everyday People, for HBO
Films, which last month opened New Directors New Films, as well as the four-hour mini-series
Attila The Hun, for the USA Network, and several other movies for television.
As a production executive he headed Ed Pressman's company from 1988 to 1992, and was
president of Alphaville, Jim Jacks' and Sean Daniel's company on the Paramount lot, until 2003.
Visionbox Pictures. John Manulis’ producing credits include Tortilla Soup; The Basketball
Diaries, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg, Swing Kids starring Christian Bale,
Noah Wyle and Kenneth Branagh; Daybreak starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Moira Kelly; and
the upcoming The L.A. Riot Spectacular, starring Snoop Dogg, Charles Dutton, Emilio Estevez,
Charles Durning, TK Carter, William Forsythe, Ronny Cox and George Hamilton. He was
executive producer of double-IFP Independent Spirit Award nominee Charlotte Sometimes and
of Dani Minnick’s multi-festival award-winning Falling Like This, starring Patricia Clarkson.
Manulis served as the Head of Filmed Entertainment for Samuel Goldwyn Films, supervising the
production, or acquisition, of films for one of the most prestigious specialized
financier/distributors in the country. Films released under Manulis’ tenure include The Madness
of King George, Lolita, The Chambermaid, American Buffalo, Angels and Insects, I Shot Andy
Warhol, Bent, The Preacher’s Wife, Big Night, Kissed, and The King of Masks.
Manulis is currently the CEO of Visionbox Media Group, a production, post-production and
technical/distribution solutions company using digital technology to produce and distribute films
and television content less expensively and with greater creative freedom. The Visionbox
Pictures team has co-produced and provided post–production supervision and services on films
including Never Die Alone (Sundance 2004), starring DMX and directed by Ernest Dickerman
for Fox Searchlight; The Cooler (Sundance 2003), starring William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin and
Maria Bello for Lions Gate; Dopamine (Sundance 2003); What I Want My Words To Do To You
(Sundance 2003); the Golden Reel nominee The Skin We’re In for National Geographic; and
the upcoming films Duma, directed by Caroll Ballard for Gaylord Films/Warner Bros.; The
Illusion, starring Kirk Douglas; The Woods, directed by Lucky McKee for United Artists; and
Aurora Borealis, starring Donald Sutherland, Josh Jackson and Juliette Lewis. For more
information on Visionbox Pictures or Visionbox Media Group please go to
www.visionboxmedia.com
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