Carroll County will be the setting of a “tragedy to triumph” movie about the University of West Georgia cheerleading team and their rise to national champion status in the years following a van accident that killed two cheerleaders and their coach. (okay I just added that part..seems the website article left out the 3 words.)
The film, announced Monday by community and University of West Georgia officials, will be shot in the coming months.
“This is a ‘Rudy’ story about cheerleading,” said Daniel Jackson,
vice president of Carroll Tomorrow, a division of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce. He said the movie's working title is “Cheer the Brave."
Jackson said the idea for the project came when Carrollton resident Richard Mix, film producer and founder of Carrollton Film Partners, told him he was interested in making movies with a local setting.
Mix said when Jackson told him about basing a movie on the travails of the West Georgia cheerleading team, “I immediately responded to it. I thought it was a terrific idea.”
Carroll Tomorrow President and CEO Slater Barr also believed the story would make a good movie.
“It was a story that was utterly compelling,” Barr said. “It was a drama. It was inspirational.”
The movie likely would air on television in the spring or early summer of next year, Mix said. He said he didn’t know at this point which station would broadcast the movie but that he was talking with several networks.
www.times-georgian.com
Andy Nowicki
7/29/03