Showing posts with label Louis Zamperini. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Louis Zamperini. Show all posts

Thursday, July 31, 2014



LA Daily News

Torrance bids farewell to hometown hero Louis Zamperini

By Donna Littlejohn, LA Daily News
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Cynthia Zamperini-Garris becomes tearful as she talks about her father, Louis Zamperini, at a memorial for the Torrance legend, who died earlier this month. Thursday, July 31, 2014, Torrance, CA. (Steve McCrank / Staff Photographer)
Chanting “Louie! Louie! Louie!,” thousands of people stomped and cheered Thursday as Torrance High School distance runners rounded the last lap of a run in honor of hometown hero Louis Zamperini, whose life plumbed the depths and soared the heights of the human experience.
Zamperini, who died July 2 at the age of 97, was a well-known icon in Torrance for decades. But in the past few years, his story has gone global.
An estimated 2,000 people filled the home-team stands at Zamperini Stadium to celebrate his life.
The two-hour event included prayer and music, speeches and emotional flyovers. It also featured no shortage of the most famous Louie stories.
Zamperini’s son, Luke, told the story of how his dad once stayed up all night, nursing his pet rats back to health; how he taught him to drive (and always to anticipate what the other driver would do); and how in his later years, he often said the words that came hard earlier in life: “I love you.”
“He was a really great dad,” he said. “He was always there for my sister and myself.”
Zamperini wore his USC ballcap everywhere, his son said.
“Louie was miraculous,” he said. “It’s not that he performed miracles, but miraculous things seemed to happen to him.”
“I can’t stop crying, and my hair’s a wreck,” said his daughter, Cynthia Zamperini-Garris. “Louie loved his hometown of Torrance, and if he could see this turnout, it would fill his heart with joy.”
The outdoor event was a chance for the hometown to say goodbye to “Lucky Louie,” who got his start running track at Torrance High School, which opened in 1917, the same year Zamperini was born. As a student there, Zamperini set a new interscholastic mile world record of 4:21:02, which stood for 19 years. He later went on to run at USC and compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Back then, the city rallied to send him off with a new suitcase.
If there was a sad note at the memorial, it was that Zamperini would not be on the red carpet come December. Zamperini died less than six months shy of the much-anticipated Dec. 25 release of “Unbroken,” the Angelina Jolie-directed biopic chronicling his story of survival, perseverance and redemption.
In an interview before the event, Luke Zamperini said he’d mentioned to Jolie how sorry he was that his father wouldn’t see the movie.
“Oh, he saw it,” he said Jolie told him. She said she brought her laptop to the hospital to show him scenes she had been editing before Zamperini died of pneumonia.
Jolie was not able to attend Thursday’s event but sent along a message that was read by Zamperini’s grandson, Clay.
“Louie was my friend, my mentor and my hero,” it said, going on to praise the Greatest Generation that served a “country they believed in for morals they believed in.”
Among the touches they worked on to get right, she wrote, was “the T” on Zamperini’s Torrance running uniform from the 1930s.
“My life and my family’s life have been forever changed because of your ‘Torrance Tornado,’ ” Jolie’s message read. His legacy, she said, will be the triumph of the human spirit.
“Unbroken” producer Matthew Baer, who was inspired by seeing a clip of Louie at the 1988 Olympics, had been working for years to bring Zamperini’s story to the big screen.
“I was the only person who loved talking about Louie’s story more than Louie himself,” Baer told the crowd. He became so attached to the family and the project over the past 16 years that he said he became the “only Jewish Zamperini.”
The turning point, he said, came with a 2002 letter that began: “Dear Mr. Zamperini, My name is Laura Hillenbrand and I am the author of a new book ‘Seabiscuit.’ ”
“Louie was always my biggest cheerleader,” Baer said, calling him a prophet of inspiration who had the ultimate underdog story to tell.
But it was probably the testimonies at the end from two young men whose lives were changed that would have pleased Zamperini the most had he been there.
Kyle Gauthier told the crowd he was trapped in a “whirlwind of drugs” just six months ago when the Zamperini family intervened. Louie provided several thousand dollars to send Gauthier to a Youth with a Mission program in Australia.
When he met Zamperini in person at his home in the Hollywood Hills, he was surprised after having read a signed copy of “Unbroken.”
He didn’t boast, he didn’t regale him with stories of heroism or mention the money he’d provided for his recovery, Gauthier said.
“He simply said, ‘Glory to God.’ ”
“Sixty years ago, the same experience that happened to me happened to Louie,” he said, referring to Zamperini’s life-changing conversion to Christianity.
“If you can’t believe in God, look at my life. Look at Louie’s life,” he said.
For Alex Katunich, the former bassist with the rock band Incubus, the message came through Hillenbrand’s book, “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.”
On his way to rehab two years ago, he and his father stopped in at a bookstore. His dad suggested he read Hillenbrand’s book, saying, “You might want to read this, presuming you can stop shaking.”
He urged the audience to ask what they could do for someone else as a way of honoring Zamperini.
A private July 13 memorial at Hollywood Presbyterian Church — where Zamperini was a member and Sunday school teacher for many years — drew childhood friends and celebrities, including Jolie.
The Torrance event was open to everyone and included several World War II veterans, among them Bill Sanchez, 96, who was in the prisoner-of-war camp with Zamperini.
Among the other highlights was the reading of the eulogy written by Hillenbrand.
“Louie and I began and ended in laughter,” Hillenbrand wrote in the eulogy read by Jolie at the memorial and by Zamperini friend Debbie Hays of Torrance on Thursday.
“I went to him drawn by the almost unimaginably dramatic and often harrowing events of his life. But when he spoke, something surprised and captivated me even more than his history. As he told of a war ordeal of profound suffering, in his voice there was no mournfulness, no self-pity, no bitterness, no anger. Instead, he was cheerful, buoyant, sparklingly witty.”
Ken Miller, who lived next door to the Zamperinis in the 1930s, recalled those early days in the 2000 block of Gramercy Avenue.
And several speakers recalled Zamperini’s unlikely beginnings in light of the hero status he attained.
“In his youth, he was a juvenile delinquent,” former Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto said. “Stealing pies, cigarettes and liquor; ringing church bells in the middle of the night to awaken neighbors; fighting, shooting spit wads at girls in class — you name it, he did it.”
He was trouble. But he was also fast.
It was through the “tough love” of his older brother Pete, who later was a coach at Banning High School in Wilmington for years, that Zamperini began to channel his speed into track events. He was one of the 334 American athletes to go to the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, where Adolf Hitler asked to shake his hand.
From there, his life took several turns that would give him iconic status as he shared his story throughout the world.
A bombardier during World War II, Zamperini was stranded for 47 days on a raft, only to be rescued by the Japanese who brutally mistreated him in a POW camp. He was erroneously reported as dead in 1944.
He had survived sharks, near starvation and beatings — but Zamperini could not handle what faced him when he finally returned home: an internal bitterness and anger that gnawed at his soul, visiting him in nightmares and driving him to drink. He became obsessed with hunting down the former captor who tormented him in the POW camp.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” Zamperini said in a 2013 interview with the Los Angeles News Group, which includes the Daily Breeze. “... I was an athlete who went to the Olympics, and I was a soldier in World War II. But then my life fell apart.”
At the insistence of his wife, who had threatened to leave him, he attended a revival meeting on the streets of Los Angeles, where a young evangelist named Billy Graham was packing in the crowds desperate to hear his message of salvation and God’s forgiveness.
“That changed my whole life,” said Zamperini, who always pointed to something deeper when personal praise came his way. “I accepted Christ as my savior, and I was on my knees. My whole life changed in a matter of seconds.”
His autobiography — “Devil at My Heels” — sparked early talk of a movie based on his life with the likes of Tony Curtis and Nicholas Cage expressing interest in playing Zamperini through the years.
But it was the 2010 publication of Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken” that catapulted the renewed push in a big-screen film that stars Jack O’Connell in the title role.
In true Zamperini style, he was dubious about Hillenbrand’s overtures in the beginning, telling her, “Look, lady, I wrote my book. If you want to do your own, go ahead.”
Staff writer Carley Dryden contributed to this report.






























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Tuesday, July 22, 2014






Laura Hillenbrand shared a link.
Oregon photographer David Mackintosh, who spent three days with Louie Zamperini last summer, digitizing and restoring some 600 of his photos and taking original images of artifacts of his life, crafted this slideshow for Louie's memorial service last Sunday. It's absolutely extraordinary. Please watch this, remember Louie, and share it.









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Wednesday, July 16, 2014




Laura Hillenbrand
July 17 at 10:06am
My brief eulogy for Louie, which Angelina Jolie read at his private memorial service on Sunday:

Louie and I began and ended in laughter.
I went to him drawn by the almost unimaginably dramatic and often harrowing events of his life. But when he spoke, something surprised and captivated me even more than his history. As he told of a war ordeal of profound suffering, in his voice there was no mournfulness, no self-pity, no bitterness, no anger. Instead, he was cheerful, buoyant, sparklingly witty. “I’ll be an easier subject than Seabiscuit,” he said, “because I can talk.”
If anything defined Louie, it was that. What made his life transcendent, what made it resonate in millions of hearts, was not the hardship he encountered, but the way in which he greeted it, how he turned it to joy, and what that told the rest of us about the potential that sleeps within ourselves. For all its grueling hardships, his life was not a sad story because he wouldn’t allow it to be. It was a triumph -- of persistence, of optimism, of love. Louie summoned strength amid suffering, joy amid sorrow, forgiveness amid cruelty, and hope that knew no master. To him, his odyssey was a gift. His laughter was irrepressible because he looked about him and saw only blessings. The most beautiful thing about this wondrous man was that he wished for all of us to see in our own lives what he saw in his. His story was his gift to us.
He scattered every talk we had with laughter. From our first hello to his last, singsong, “I love you! I love you!” every word he shared with me was infused in joy. In my hard hours, he was my steadying hand. In my happy hours, he was my gentle reminder to be alive to my blessings, to be grateful for them, to share them as he did his. Because I knew him, I see my world, my struggles, my bliss, my dreams, differently, and my life is richer, deeper, sweeter.
When I learned he was gone, I thought of words written by Maya Angelou:
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
Who among us hasn’t persevered, hasn’t seen a broader horizon of possibility, hasn’t seen light in darkness, because Louie existed? And in the way in which we are all changed for knowing him, doesn’t he live still?
I feel him now among us, young again, his strong legs reaching and pushing, his great lungs drawing in the sweet air, his grand, bounding heart beating, beating, beating.
Listen. You can hear his laughter.










dailybreeze

Public invited to outdoor July 31 memorial honoring Louis Zamperini in Torrance

By Donna Littlejohn, Redlands Daily Facts

Only close family and friends — which included some lifelong acquaintances from Torrance along with Hollywood stars — were invited to attend Louis Zamperini’s funeral Sunday at Hollywood Presbyterian Church.

But the city of Torrance, where Zamperini grew up, is now planning its own send-off for the hometown hero.

“It’s open to the public,” Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto said a few hours before he was to announce the plans at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. “We’re encouraging everyone to come and we really hope that Torrance High School alumni will come out in force.”

The gathering is planned for 6 p.m. July 31 at Zamperini Stadium at Torrance High School, Zamperini’s alma mater. The football stadium at 2125 Lincoln Ave., near Arlington Avenue, also hosts track and field meets, which Zamperini excelled at before moving on to compete at USC and in the Olympics.

“We plan to have guest speakers there; the alumni association will be represented,” said Scotto, who attended the private funeral. “And we hope to have flyovers. We’re arranging that right now. It will be a true tribute to a local hero.”

Zamperini, whose story of survival as a prisoner of war during World War II will hit the big screen in “Unbroken” on Dec. 25, died July 3 after a 40-day battle with pneumonia. He was 97 years old.

“It was completely packed,” Scotto said of the funeral at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, where Zamperini was a member and Sunday school teacher for many years. “It was very touching, but as I sat there I thought we have to do something in Torrance.”

He said Zamperini’s close family members — children Cynthia and Luke and grandson Clay — were receptive to the idea and are planning to participate.

Zamperini also was named as the Jan. 1 Rose Parade grand marshal. Parade organizers said they also are planning a tribute to his life.

Former Torrance Mayor Ken Miller, 91, who lived next door to Zamperini in the 2000 block of Gramercy Avenue for about eight years in the late 1930s, said a public gathering in Torrance is fitting.
“I think that’s great,” he said. “Everybody will go.”

In addition to Angelina Jolie, whose husband, Brad Pitt, was in attendance, Sunday’s service featured Draggan Mihailovich, a director with Fox Sports; Kyle Gauthier, who spoke about how Zamperini helped him through a difficult time in his life; and Zamperini’s family members. Hymns included “How Great Thou Art.”

After the afternoon church service, a reception was held at a nearby Italian restaurant, where Miller said he talked with Jolie for about 10 minutes. She told him Zamperini had seen much of the film as it was going into the editing process. Filming was done earlier this year on location in Australia, where Jolie told Miller a stand-in town was found for the scenes depicting Zamperini’s childhood in Torrance.

“I told her those were some good years and bad years,” Miller said, referring to Zamperini’s rebellious childhood. “She was very interested in the fact that we lived next door and that we knew the family very well. ... I saw Louie a lot because Mrs. Zamperini would invite us over for spaghetti.”

Miller said he was somewhat “overwhelmed” by the private time the film director gave to him at the restaurant. “What a delightful person,” he said of Jolie. “She was very down to earth. ... There was no makeup, no showing off.”

“I told her (at the end of our conversation), ‘Don’t forget about Torrance in all this,’ and she said they were going to have to plan something for Torrance when the movie comes out,” Miller said.

Miller kept in touch with Zamperini through the years but hadn’t called too often in recent months after his friend became so busy with the film project.

“Unbroken” is based on the 2010 best-seller of the same name by Laura Hillenbrand. The book will be released in paperback July 29.

“He’s really only been recognized in the last 10 years,” Scotto said of Zamperini’s fame. “Up until then, very few people realized how great of a man he was. The stories are just unbelievable.”

To his hometown of Torrance, however, Zamperini has been a much-feted favorite son for decades.
“Louis would be delighted to know the city is hosting a public memorial for him,” said Zamperini friend Debbie Hays, first vice president of the Torrance Historical Society. “After all, he put Torrance on the map.”

Named in his honor are Zamperini Way and Zamperini Field at Torrance Municipal Airport as well as Zamperini Stadium at Torrance High.

Zamperini moved to the Hollywood Hills many years ago but never seemed to forget his childhood years in Torrance, where he acquired the nickname “Torrance Tornado” as a track runner who went on to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Zamperini spent 47 days on a raft in the Pacific during World War II before he was captured and sent to a Japanese POW camp where he was tortured for two years.

Haunted after he returned home from the war, Zamperini experienced a life-changing conversion to Christianity after attending a Billy Graham revival meeting on the streets of Los Angeles. He dedicated the rest of his life to God, writing a letter of forgiveness to his former Japanese tormentor, establishing the Victory Boys Camp for troubled youths in Los Angeles and giving inspirational talks throughout the world.

He maintained a busy speaking schedule until just recently, speaking at a sold-out February 2013 breakfast at the Armstrong Theater in Torrance that was sponsored by King’s Harbor Church.
“He had a way of changing lives through his inspiration and a capacity for forgiveness that was divine in nature,” Hays said.

When the “Unbroken” movie comes out on Christmas Day, Scotto said, more “people will really have a whole different view of him. Many of them will be saying, ‘I wish I knew that guy when he was alive.’ ”


WANT TO GO?

What: Public memorial service for Louis Zamperini, who died July 3 at the age of 97
When: 6 p.m. July 31
Where: Zamperini Stadium at Torrance High School, 2125 Lincoln Ave., near Arlington Avenue
Donations: Donations can be made in Zamperini’s memory to the Victory Boys Camp in Los Angeles that Zamperini founded in 1952 to provide help for troubled youth; the family will continue to operate the camp. Checks should be made out to “Victory Boys Camp” and sent to Victory Boys Camp, 2338 Hollyridge Drive, Hollywood, CA 90068
Condolences: Correspondence should be addressed to Zamperini family, c/o Torrance Historical Society, 1345 Post Ave., Torrance, CA 90501



To watch the trailer for “Unbroken”, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrjJbl7kRrI.

Donna Littlejohn
Reach the author at Donna.Littlejohn@dailybreeze.com








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Sunday, July 6, 2014













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Thursday, July 3, 2014






....
Many know Zamperini’s story because of the superb book by Seabiscuit author Hillenbrand, and the world will celebrate him at year’s end when Universal releases the film in Oscar season, with Jack O’Connell playing Zamperini. I have been obsessed with Zamperini since I saw a segment on his ordeal broadcast by CBS during the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and have written about the movie at Variety and Deadline since then at the slightest provocation, because it seemed such a worth screen story. When CBS chronicled his story, Zamperini returned to Japan to run with the Olympic torch, covering ground not far from where he spent an unimaginably brutal stretch in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. That is only a small part of Zamperini’s legend.
....
I spoke with Jolie when Deadline revealed that she had been chosen by Universal (Donna Langley loved her debut In The Land Of Blood And Honey), and my, was Jolie excited. She knew the Zamperini story inside and out, and when she met him, it was love at first sight. She described how hard she had prepared for her audition (several directors tried for the assignment), and how she and husband Brad Pitt waited anxiously for the phone call, with Pitt suggesting she call to find out what was happening. I imagine such a thing rarely happens with that couple, who most often have to tell a lot of people “no” for all of the movie offers they receive. At the time, Jolie called Zamperini “a true hero and a man of immense humanity, faith and courage.”
It is sad he didn’t get to be there at the film’s premiere–he succumbed after battling pneumonia for 40 days. Matt Baer often told me how important it was to the humble Zamperini that his story be told, and I can only hope he got to view a rough cut before he passed away at age 97. Here is the live link to view the Nagano segments on Zamperini, broken into four installments. If you have a little time, it will be technicolor clear why he was such an exceptional man.

Read the rest at deadline








Jolie showed Zamperini 'a lot of scenes' of 'Unbroken'


...
His story was so epic, says Jolie, that she and Hillenbrand had a tough time condensing it for readers and viewers alike.

"I call Laura often," Jolie told USA TODAY in May, "and she herself said that the original book was so much longer." Jolie is still editing the final cut of Unbroken (due in theaters this Christmas), but said Zamperini, who lived near the actress in the Hollywood Hills, was a common fixture in her life.
"He has seen a lot of the scenes," she told USA TODAY. "I run things by him and show him stuff."
Zamperini gave Jolie a golden running shoe pendant, a prize from one of his earliest races, which she wore as she shot Unbroken in Australia. In November, he attended the Governors Awards as Jolie received her honorary Oscar for her humanitarian work.

Jolie researched the WWII tale heavily prior to shooting, and said she awaited Zamperini's feedback nervously.

"It's really sweet because I showed him (a scene) on the raft and he said, "You know, the raft looked just like that!" And I think, well thank god! Because to him, it's like he's really surprised it looks like it, and I'm thinking, 'Oh god, for all the research could you imagine if he said it didn't." So you do try to get him right."

The actress also expressed how warm of an experience it was to share pieces of the film with Zamperini, particularly watching him experience actors bringing his loved ones back to life. "It's really sweet to show him (footage), he's lost so many, most of his family members," she said.

In May, Zamperini was named grand marshal of the 2015 Rose Parade in Pasadena, and recalled that Hillenbrand, in researching the book, asked to interview his friends from college and the Army.
"And now after the book was finished all of my college buddies are dead, all of my war buddies are dead. It's sad to realize that you've lost all your friends," he said. "But I think I made up for it. I made a new friend - Angelina Jolie. And the gal really loves me, she hugs me and kisses me, so I can't complain."

On Thursday, the actress released a statement on the news of Zamperini's passing after a 40-day battle with pneumonia. "It is a loss impossible to describe," said Jolie. "We are all so grateful for how enriched our lives are for having known him. We will miss him terribly."







Contributing: Associated Press






By Josh Dickey



Lieutenant Lou Zamperini (right) receives silver bombardier wings on August 14, 1942.





Louis Zamperini, the U.S. Olympic track star and World War II hero whose remarkable survival story is the basis for the upcoming Angelina Jolie-directed movie Unbroken, has died at age 97.
.....
Zamperini will be played by Jack O’Connell (300: Rise of an Empire) in the film, which is likely to debut at the Toronto Film Festival this fall. By all accounts around Hollywood, it has the goods to be a major awards contender.

Zamperini had been set to be grand marshal at the Rose Bowl parade this Jan. 1. His wife, Cynthia Applewhite, died in 2001.






LATimes
Obituary



The government announcement of Louis Zamperini's death in World War II made headlines.
Zamperini was the "Torrance Tornado," the tough kid turned track star who set a national high school record for running the mile. In 1936, he was known as "The Zamp," the 18-year-old USC standout who ran at the Berlin Olympics, where his roommate was Jesse Owens. In 1943, he was Lt. Zamperini, a bombardier on a B-24 Liberator, who, along with 10 other crew members, fell off the map on a May 27 mission over the Pacific.
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent his parents a formal condolence note in 1944, he had no idea that Zamperini was still alive and living a nightmare in a Japanese prison camp. For 47 days, Zamperini had drifted on a life raft, fighting off sharks and starvation with two other crew members, one of whom died. Picked up by a Japanese patrol boat, the two survivors were beaten, tortured and humiliated for more than two years.
After the war, Zamperini was told by an Army superior that his raft trip qualified him for $7.60 a day in reimbursement. But someone higher up in the command nixed it: "Request denied," the letter said. "Travel unauthorized."
Zamperini, who became an inspirational speaker and evangelical Christian youth worker after returning from the war emotionally battered, died Wednesday — 70 years after the mistaken government announcement. He was 97.
His death from pneumonia was confirmed by a spokesman for Universal Pictures, which is scheduled to release a film based on Zamperini's life in December.
An athlete who stayed trim his entire life, Zamperini gave up skateboarding at 81. Ten years later, he gave up skiing. At 97, he was fit enough to be picked as grand marshal of the 2015 Rose Parade. He often credited his years of rigorous training and competition with helping him to survive the ordeal of war.
"The only way I can put it that makes sense is that every athlete wants to win," he said on CBS' "The Early Show" in 2001.
It was unclear Thursday morning who would replace him in the Rose Parade.
Zamperini's remarkable life story is the subject of "Unbroken," the film based on Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling book of the same name.
The tale had been simmering on Hollywood's back burner for decades. In 1957, Universal Pictures bought the rights to Zamperini's memoir, "Devil at My Heels." Producers even pegged actor Tony Curtis for the leading role but then "Spartacus" came along and the project was dropped. Zamperini's saga languished.

"The story was as vast as the ocean waters in which Zamperini had floated for nearly two months," then-Times film reporter John Horn wrote in 2014. Producers and writers "simply had too much material, and no one could figure out precisely which parts of his story to tell and which to leave behind."
Intrigued by Hillenbrand's 2010 book, actress Angelina Jolie pushed the film into production. She directed it as well.
As it turned out, her home in the Hollywood hills was just a stroll away from the one Zamperini owned for more than 50 years.
"I imagine that for the last 10-something years, he's been sitting there having a coffee in the morning and wondering, 'Who's going to make this movie?'" Jolie said in a 2014 interview on NBC's "Today" show. "And I've been sitting in my room thinking, 'What am I supposed to be doing with my life?'"
Zamperini's life was the stuff movies are made of.

In the 1930s, he was an emerging track star, a two-time NCAA champion in the mile at USC and a likely candidate to break the four-minute mile. At the Berlin Olympics, he finished eighth in the 5,000-meter run and afterward shook hands with Adolf Hitler, who called him the "boy with the fast finish."
He was a sure thing for the 1940 Olympics, but they never materialized. Planned for Tokyo, the Games were canceled when war broke out.
As a flier in the Pacific, Zamperini was part of a crew trying to find a downed plane when his aircraft developed engine trouble and plunged into the Pacific hundreds of miles south of Hawaii.
"The plane exploded," he told the CBS program "48 Hours" in 1999. "I felt like someone hit me on the forehead with a sledgehammer. My head comes out of the water. It looks just like the world just stood still for a moment."
Only three of the 11 men onboard survived the crash and another died before Zamperini and 2nd Lt. Russell Phillips were captured by a Japanese patrol ship in the Marshall Islands.

"We were in constant, horrible fear," Zamperini told The Times in 2002. "Sometimes [a shark] would put its head right up on the raft and look at us. We'd whack them on the nose with the paddles."
Zamperini and Phillips survived on rain water and whatever fish they could catch. They endured strafing by Japanese planes. And they kept their wits with mental exercises that included Zamperini narrating the preparation of an elaborate meal, listing each ingredient. "When the imaginary meal was prepared, the men would devour every crumb, describing every mouthful," Hillenbrand recounted in "Unbroken."
"They conjured up the scene in such vivid detail that somehow their stomachs were fooled by it, if only briefly."
By the time of their capture, Zamperini had drifted 2,000 miles and weighed less than 100 pounds.
Zamperini was among prisoners who were given mysterious injections to test their reactions. He was particularly menaced by a soldier named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, whom the prisoners called The Bird and who "would dedicate himself to shattering" Zamperini, Hillenbrand wrote.
"I could take the beatings and the physical punishment, but it was the attempt to destroy your dignity, to make you a nonentity, that was the hardest thing to bear," Zamperini told the New York Times in 2003.
After Zamperini was declared dead in 1944, the airport in Torrance was named after him and a race in New York's Madison Square Garden was renamed the Louis Zamperini Memorial Mile. The Torrance High School stadium also bears his name. In 2013, the dining hall at an Army missile test site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands was renamed in his honor.
The first sign that the downed flier was alive came in November 1944, when Radio Tokyo broadcast a greeting to his parents. But Zamperini refused to cooperate for a second broadcast, when his captors wanted him to read a statement critical of the United States.
As a result, Zamperini, who was promoted to captain while in captivity, was sent to "punishment camp."
"My first thought was anything is better than going back to The Bird. If I get away from him, I don't care where I go," he told "48 Hours."
Unfortunately, the new camp's commander was The Bird, who continued to torment Zamperini until the war's end.
Louis Silvie Zamperini was born Jan. 26, 1917, in Olean, N.Y., the second of four children of Louise and Anthony Zamperini. His father, who was born in Italy and came to the United States as a teenager, started working in a coal mine, then in construction.

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comingsoon.net

Louis Zamperini, the Subject of Angelina Jolie's Unbroken, Passes Away

Olympian and World War II hero Louis Zamperini, who is the subject of director Angelina Jolie's Unbroken, has passed away at the age of 97.
....

Adapted from Laura Hillenbrand's ("Seabiscuit: An American Legend") enormously popular book, Unbroken brings to the big screen Zamperini's unbelievable and inspiring true story about the resilient power of the human spirit.

The film, which was planning on releasing a new trailer very shortly, is scheduled to open in theaters on December 25.
...






The film based on his life story will hit theaters this Christmas

Louis Zamperini is a hero, no question about it. From Olympian to POW, his story is one for the ages, one laid out on the page beautifully by author Laura Hillenbrand in the book "Unbroken" and adapted by filmmaker Angelina Jolie in a film that will be released later this year. But just six months shy of seeing that life story writ large on the big screen for movie fans the world over to learn about his struggle, Zamperini has passed away, having lived a long and full 97 years.
Here is his family's statement, conveyed by "Unbroken" distributor Universal Pictures:
"Having overcome insurmountable odds at every turn in his life, Olympic runner and World War II hero Louis Zamperini has never broken down from a challenge. He recently faced the greatest challenge of his life with a life-threatening case of pneumonia. After a 40-day long battle for his life, he peacefully passed away in the presence of his entire family, leaving behind a legacy that has touched so many lives. His indomitable courage and fighting spirit were never more apparent than in these last days."
A statement from the studio:
"We are so profoundly sad at this moment and all of our thoughts and prayers are with the Zamperini family. Louis was truly one of a kind. He lived the most remarkable life, not because of the many unbelievable incidents that marked his near century's worth of years, but because of the spirit with which he faced every one of them. Confronting challenges that would cause most of us to surrender, Louie always persevered and always prevailed, and he spent the better part of his lifetime sharing the message that you could do the same. His example of grace, dignity and resilience inspired all of us lucky enough to know him and the millions who got to know him from the pages of Laura's book. We move forward to the release of 'Unbroken' with a renewed sense of responsibility in bringing Louie's abundant life and indomitable spirit to the screen. Now more than ever, we join Angelina in honoring the lessons and legacy of this extraordinary man who has meant so much to so many."
And from Jolie:
"It is a loss impossible to describe. We are all so grateful for how enriched our lives are for having known him. We will miss him terribly."
Here at In Contention, we look forward to covering the upcoming film and celebrating his life with Universal, Jolie and actor Jack O'Connell, who was tasked with the gargantuan duty of portraying Zamperini on screen.

Read more at hitfix incontention


Laura Hillenbrand
It is with tears and the heaviest heart that I share the news of the passing of Louie Zamperini. He died peacefully in his sleep last night, surrounded by his loved ones. He lived ninety-seven beautiful, extraordinary years.
Louie was my beloved friend, my surrogate grandfather, a man who threw laughter and light across my dark days, my hero, my steadying hand. To know him, to be in the presence of his radiant optimism, his sparkling wit, and the love in which he lavished everyone around him, was a privilege and a pleasure and and an indescribable joy. In a life of almost unimaginable drama, he experienced supreme triumphs, but also brutal hardship, incomprehensible suffering, and the cruelty of his fellow man. He was an airman, a plane crash victim, a castaway, he was attacked by sharks and strafed by his enemy, he was a POW and a slave, he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. But Louie greeted every challenge of his long journey with singular resilience, determination and ingenuity, with a ferocious will to survive and prevail, and with hope that knew no master. His life would not be a sad story because he would not allow it to be. His story is a lesson in the potential that lies within all of us to summon strength amid suffering, love in the face of cruelty, joy from sorrow. Of the myriad gifts he has left us, the greatest is the lesson of forgiveness.
Farewell to the grandest, most buoyant, most generous soul I ever knew. Thank you, Louie, for all you gave to me, to our country, and to the world. I will never forget our last, laughing talk, your singsong "I love you! I love you!" and the words you whispered to me when you last hugged me goodbye, words that left me in happy tears, words that I will remember forever. I will love you and miss you to the end of my days. Godspeed, sweet Louie.








deadline

R.I.P. Louis Zamperini, Olympian War Hero Is Subject Of Angelina Jolie’s ‘Unbroken’

Louis Zamperini, the World War II hero and former Olympic long distance runner, has died. The subject of Angelina Jolie‘s upcoming sophomore directorial effort Unbroken, Zamperini was 97. Universal, which announced his passing this morning, had developed the Unbroken project for close to 55 years when it finally got off the ground with Jolie signed to direct in December 2012. The script is based on Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption, by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand. Zamperini was a Depression era kid who became a track prodigy and was the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team that traveled to Berlin for the 1936 games. He didn’t medal, but was so impressive that Hitler asked to meet him. The 1940 Olympics in Tokyo were cancelled due to the war, and in 1941, Zamperini enlisted in the Air Force. When his plane went down in the Pacific during a rescue mission, Zamperini and two other crew mates survived on a raft in the hot sun for 47 days. They were ultimately caught by the Japanese Navy, beginning a terrifying term of captivity that lasted until the end of the war in 1945. Universal first bought Zamperini’s rights back in the 1950s. As Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr has written, “Few movies gestate as long as this one, but it’s clear from Hillenbrand’s remarkable book that it was wise to wait. Zamperini had a lot of work to do to make himself whole again after enduring an ordeal that would break even the strongest of men.” Universal screened very impressive footage of Unbroken at Cine Europe in Barcelona two weeks ago, and at CinemaCon in March. The movie stars Jack O’Connell as the younger Zamperini along with Jai Courtney, Garrett Hedlund and Domhnall Gleeson. It’s due for release on December 25 this year. Shortly after that, Zamperini was to be the Grand Marshall at the 2015 Rose Parade in January.

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thr

WWII Hero, 'Unbroken' Subject Louis Zamperini Dies at 97

12:42 AM PST 07/03/2014 by Debbie Emery



The inspiration for the book and upcoming Angelina Jolie film "Unbroken" and a former Olympian passed away following a case of pneumonia, according to a spokesperson for Universal Pictures.

WWII Hero and Unbroken inspiration Louis Zamperini has died at age 97, according to a spokesperson for Universal Pictures.

A statement released by the studio on Thursday morning included a message from his family, which read:
"Having overcome insurmountable odds at every turn in his life, Olympic runner and World War II hero Louis Zamperini has never broken down from a challenge.
"He recently faced the greatest challenge of his life with a life-threatening case of pneumonia. After a 40-day long battle for his life, he peacefully passed away in the presence of his entire family, leaving behind a legacy that has touched so many lives. His indomitable courage and fighting spirit were never more apparent than in these last days."

 Angelina Jolie, who directed the 2014 film about his life based on the best-selling book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, immediately expressed her loss. "It is a loss impossible to describe. We are all so grateful for how enriched our lives are for having known him. We will miss him terribly," she said in a statement.
Universal Pictures, which will release the film adaptation of Zamperini's incredible story on December 25, 2014, went on to say in a statement:
"We are so profoundly sad at this moment and all of our thoughts and prayers are with the Zamperini family.  Louis was truly one of a kind. He lived the most remarkable life, not because of the many unbelievable incidents that marked his near century's worth of years, but because of the spirit with which he faced every one of them.

"Confronting challenges that would cause most of us to surrender, Louie always persevered and always prevailed, and he spent the better part of his lifetime sharing the message that you could do the same. His example of grace, dignity and resilience inspired all of us lucky enough to know him and the millions who got to know him from the pages of Laura's book.  We move forward to the release of Unbroken with a renewed sense of responsibility in bringing Louie's abundant life and indomitable spirit to the screen.  Now more than ever, we join Angelina in honoring the lessons and legacy of this extraordinary man who has meant so much to so many."
Born in Orlean, New York, on January 26, 1917, to Italian immigrant parents, Zamperini and his family moved to Torrance, Calif., when he was a child. He was a member of the 1936 U.S. Olympic track team in Berlin running the 5,000 meters, and at 19, was the youngest American qualifier ever in that event.

In 1941, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces and was later deployed to the Pacific as a bombardier on a B-24 Liberator bomber. The story of Unbroken, set in 1943, follows Zamperini as his Air Force plane crashes in the Pacific. He and two others survived without food and water for 47 days before washing ashore on a Japanese island behind enemy lines, where he was held as a prisoner of war for two years.
Zamperini was first named missing at sea and then killed in action, but after the war was over he returned to his family in America with a hero's welcome and married Cynthia Applewhite in 1946, who he remained with until her death in 2001.
On his 81st birthday in January 1988, the former athlete returned to Japan and ran a leg in the Olympic Torch relay for the Winter Olympics in Nagano.
Torrance Airport was renamed Zamperini Field in the 1960s, his former high school named their stadium after him, and the entrance plaza at USC's track and field stadium was named Louis Zamperini Plaza in 2004. The football fan continued to attend USC games well into his 90s and even became friends with then-quarterbak Matt Barkley in 2009.

 After meeting Zamperini last year, Jolie, who lived nearby his Hollywood Hills home, revealed that they had "become close friends.
"It will be hard to make a film worthy of this great man," she said in October 2013 while filming the biopic in Australia. "I am deeply honored to have the chance and will do all I can to bring Louie’s inspiring story to life."

Jolie produced Unbroken with Matthew Baer and Erwin Stoff. Jack O’Connell stars as Zamperini, while Garrett Hedlund also appears in the film.








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Friday, April 18, 2014



latimes

Angelina Jolie breaks the curse of 'Unbroken'

The amazing tale of Louis Zamperini remained untold on film for 56 years because there was just too much to tell.

Director-producer Angelina Jolie and Garrett Hedlund on the set of the movie "Unbroken." (David James / Universal Pictures)


By John Horn

April 18, 2014 , 7:00 a.m.

OXENFORD, Australia — Angelina Jolie was ready to step behind the cameras again. Her directing debut, "In the Land of Blood and Honey," hadn't been a box-office or critical hit, but making the 2011 Bosnian war drama had fueled her desire to become a filmmaker. So Jolie started looking for a follow-up movie, knowing she had to choose carefully.

"I was very nervous," Jolie said about transitioning from acting into directing. "It was like starting over. All of the things that were in your favor before are no longer there."

Finally, in late 2012, she stumbled on a talent agency's log line for "Unbroken," a feature adaptation of the Laura Hillenbrand blockbuster bestseller about the Olympic runner turned World War II bombardier Louis Zamperini, who survived 47 days in a life raft only to be tortured for more than two years as a Japanese prisoner of war.

Jolie hurriedly took the idea to Brad Pitt.

"Oh, honey," her longtime partner told her, "that's been around forever."

And then some.

Hollywood history is filled with tales of movies that have taken decades to coalesce. Screenwriter Craig Borten started working on last year's "Dallas Buyers Club" in 1992, and a sequel to 1988's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is still little more than a thwarted idea.

Yet those delays are just a blink of an eye compared to Zamperini's story — an epic tale of survival, despair, heroism and redemption — that has been kicking around Universal Pictures for more than half a century. The studio bought the rights to his memoir, "Devil at My Heels," in 1956, and penciled in Tony Curtis to star. But the actor signed on to "Spartacus" instead, and like Zamperini himself the movie was cast adrift.

It was not until one especially determined producer decided in 1998 that bringing Zamperini's true-life drama to the screen would be his crusade that the movie was revived. And yet for all of the producer's resolve, the movie still died countless deaths, its fate likely doomed until a writer battling chronic fatigue syndrome made the transformative choice to select Zamperini as the subject of her next book.

Re-create B-24 crash

 Inside a cavernous soundstage at Village Roadshow Studios near Australia's Gold Coast in January, scores of people looked on — costume designers, prop assistants, extras — as Jolie's production team prepared to re-create the crash of Zamperini's ungainly B-24, known to all the people who dreaded flying in it as the Green Hornet.

With Zamperini (newcomer Jack O'Connell) and crewmates Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips (Domhnall Gleeson) and Francis "Mac" McNamara (Finn Wittrock) braced for impact inside the mocked-up bomber, the "Unbroken" effects team rocked the plane violently, filling its fuselage with an explosion of seawater. After checking to make sure all of the cast members were uninjured, the cast and crew applauded loudly, Jolie accepted congratulations and an assistant director called for a lunch break. As everyone filed out, one straggler hung back, beaming. It was producer Matthew Baer, finally witnessing his dream materializing.

Baer knew for years that he had been the butt of Hollywood jokes.
Matthew Baer's on the line again. I wonder if it's about "Unbroken"?
When are you finally going to give up and do something else?
Is he still talking about Zamperini?

"It was embarrassing," Baer said. For 11 years, he didn't make a film, his last producer credit coming with Gwyneth Paltrow's quickly forgotten 2003 comedy "View From the Top." His wife, studio executive and producer Amy Baer, was the one cranking out movies. "Every producer has his or her passion project," said Baer, a quiet and thoughtful 49-year-old father of two. "And they may be laughed at for having it so long."

The ribbing might have stung, but Baer knew that abandoning the movie altogether would have been far more painful. "I never considered stopping," he said. "Never."

Baer first encountered Zamperini through a CBS documentary assembled for the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The circumstances carried particular relevance, because Zamperini had competed in the 1936 Games in Berlin, where he ran but did not medal in the 5,000 meters. His promising track career was cut short by the war when Zamperini enlisted in the Army Air Corps.

His malfunctioning plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 1943 miles from land, killing eight of its 11-man crew. Zamperini, Phillips and McNamara — with no meaningful rations or supplies in their raft — had to subsist on rainwater and raw birds, fish and shark liver. McNamara died at sea, and after 47 days in their boat Phillips and Zamperini became prisoners of war, with the former track star singled out for torture by the particularly sadistic guard Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed by his captors "The Bird." Zamperini's story seemingly had everything Hollywood wanted: an extraordinary hero, a contemptible villain, epic scope, war action and rich parts for an array of young actors.

Zamperini's son-in-law, television writer and director Mick Garris, sent the documentary to his talent agent, who forwarded it to Baer, then the head of Brillstein-Grey Films. Given that relatively few people at the time knew Zamperini's story and that studios in that era were not afraid to make serious war dramas like "The Thin Red Line" and "Saving Private Ryan," the source material generated immediate enthusiasm. Baer met with Zamperini and Garris, told them how impressed he was by Zamperini's life journey, and the movie rights were soon in Baer's hands. "We knew immediately he was the right guy — you could sense his passion," Garris said.

 Having bought Zamperini's memoir more than 30 years earlier, Universal still controlled Zamperini's life rights for a movie, and Brillstein-Grey had a deal there. Nicolas Cage, then a recent Oscar winner for "Leaving Las Vegas" and hot off the hits "Con Air" and "Face/Off," was attached as a star. The search for a director and screenwriter commenced.

In short order, though, Baer and everybody else involved in what was called "Untitled Louis Zamperini Project" came to recognize that the story was as vast as the ocean waters in which Zamperini had floated for nearly two months: They simply had too much material, and no one could figure out precisely which parts of his story to tell and which to leave behind.

Zamperini's chapters

Inside the Hollywood Hills home where he has lived since 1957 — he bought the house with Universal's original $8,000 book purchase a year earlier — Zamperini, 97, is as sharp as some people decades younger. While he is less active than in recent years, he still makes the occasional motivational speech and answers a steady stream of fan mail.

There are distinct chapters to Zamperini's life — running as a young man at Torrance High and USC, competing in Hitler's Olympics, surviving the war and his tormentor, and his religious conversion after becoming an alcoholic when he returned home.

Even today, Zamperini can surprise family and friends with stories he hadn't shared before, such as how Watanabe loosened a molar by cuffing Zamperini in the jaw. "He hit me just like that," Zamperini demonstrated. "And after I was finally rescued the doctors said they needed to replace the tooth."

 Given the rich details and broad sweep of his experiences, it's not surprising that screenwriters who tried to squeeze his life into a two-hour movie struggled mightily. In 1999, playwright Robert Schenkkan ("The Kentucky Cycle") wrote a draft, calling it "Iron Man," which covered most of Zamperini's life, including after the war. Universal wanted to hire an A-list director, but Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Ron Howard, Robert Zemeckis and Mel Gibson all passed. "It was probably too broad of an approach," Kevin Misher, Universal's production chief at the time, said of Schenkkan's draft.

Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day") briefly joined the project in 2002 but left to direct "King Arthur," and Tom Shadyac ("Bruce Almighty") subsequently flirted with the project but ultimately left. Neil Tolkin ("The Emperor's Club") rewrote the script in 2004, and even though it landed on Hollywood's coveted "Black List" of the best unproduced scripts, Universal couldn't land the director it wanted. By then Cage was too old, and Ashton Kutcher was mentioned as a possible star.

"The story is undeniable, but these kind of films need the right author, the right stewardship," said Scott Stuber, Misher's successor at Universal.

Thousands of miles from Hollywood, in a 1,500-square-foot row house in Washington, D.C., that very person was about to change the course of the movie's history.

Subject of book

When Laura Hillenbrand was researching her previous book, "Seabiscuit: An American Legend," she would stumble on Zamperini's name as she pored over sports pages chronicling the thoroughbred's races. She decided to make him the subject of her next book, and news of her decision reached Baer.

 Around the same time, in 2003, Universal was putting out its movie adaptation of Hillenbrand's bestseller; "Seabiscuit" pleased critics and moviegoers alike, grossing more than $120 million in domestic release. Whether the author's decision gave Baer's Zamperini movie any noticeable impetus was unclear.

"There was no evidence when the book would come out," Baer said. Having left Brillstein-Grey, he tried to raise financing for the project. Every possible suitor passed, worrying that it would be a costly, hard-to-cast period drama.

Owing both to Hillenbrand's debilitating chronic fatigue syndrome and meticulous research, it would take her until 2010 to complete the manuscript for "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption."

When the book was finally released it became a publishing phenomenon (it's still on the best-seller charts nearly four years later and has yet to be released in paperback), Baer's "Untitled Louis Zamperini Project" immediately became "Unbroken." Its journey to the screen would still take several more detours.

In 2010, Francis Lawrence ("Water for Elephants") was briefly attached to direct but left to helm the "Hunger Games" sequels. Working with even more source material than Zamperini's memoir (Hillenbrand's encyclopedic book is 496 pages), several more screenwriters, including Richard LaGravanese ("The Fisher King") and William Nicholson ("Gladiator"), tried to adapt the book but again struggled with what to include, with one draft even incorporating the 1998 CBS documentary and a non-existent meeting between Zamperini and Watanabe, which Zamperini's family objected to strenuously.

The challenges were understandable. Unlike "Captain America" or "Inglourious Basterds," the story was going to be a serious World War II drama that dealt with unimaginable suffering and Japan's inhumane treatment of its prisoners — nearly one in three Americans died in Japanese captivity. For all of Hillenbrand's exhaustive and exhausting reporting, Zamperini does not come across as particularly reflective. Finally, with hundreds of thousands of "Unbroken" books in print, every material departure from Hillenbrand's book potentially would spark complaints.

After her 2012 conversation with Pitt, Jolie read the latest screenplay draft and realized, like many before her, that it didn't quite work. But she picked up Hillenbrand's book and, in a home not more than a few hundred yards from Zamperini's — "If he looked out his window, he would have seen me devouring it," Jolie said — she lost herself in the tale.

"I wasn't really looking for something of this size," noted the 38-year-old star. "But the way Laura writes about him is the way I like to read about people. It was like I was witnessing the birth of a man — it was something I wanted to tell my sons about."

A few weeks later, at 2 a.m. while in Cambodia, Jolie awoke with the movie suddenly and clearly in her mind. She asked to meet with Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Pictures, to pitch her take on the movie, which would end with Zamperini's liberation but not include his bout with alcoholism and Billy Graham-inspired religious conversion. Jolie arrived at the studio lot with a garbage bag full of "ridiculous" charts outlining her plan — "They still laugh at me about it" — and "pitched it as hard as I could," Jolie said.

"She was really impressive — thoughtful and thorough," Langley said. The studio had been considering hiring a veteran filmmaker, and giving him (no women were on the list) a $120-million budget. Atfer meeting wih Jolie, Universal changed its mind, scaled down its investment to $65 million and took a leap with an unproven director. "It wasn't an immediate and obvious choice for everybody," Langley said. "But she won the day. She earned it."

PHOTOS: Images from Angelina Jolie's 'Unbroken'

Joel and Ethan Coen, who share Jolie's talent agent, UTA's Rich Klubeck, and had a rare opening in their work schedule, loved Hillenbrand's book and were soon hired to collaborate with Jolie to revise the screenplay. By summer 2013, even after co-financier Walden Media dropped out at the last minute and was replaced by Legendary Pictures, all of the pieces finally fell into place.

Fifteen years after Baer saw the CBS documentary, and 56 years after Universal bought Zamperini's memoir, "Unbroken" had a green light.

Deep respect

From even a quick visit to her Australia set, it's obvious that Jolie has a deep respect, if not reverence, for Zamperini — Pitt even commissioned an oil painting of him for a Christmas present to Jolie — and Hillenbrand. The author is a consultant on the movie, has read many screenplay drafts, and frequently talks to Jolie.

"It's a huge responsibility," Jolie said. "And I'm constantly asking questions. 'How do you really catch a shark? What does the liver look like? How do you eat an albatross? How do you sink a plane?'"

To bring her ideas to life, Jolie hired some of Hollywood's top department heads, including "No Country for Old Men" cinematographer Roger Deakins and "Life of Pi" editor Tim Squyres as collaborators. Last month, at a convention for theater owners in Las Vegas, Jolie showed several minutes from the film, which suggested "Unbroken" will have both a glowing, Americana feel — particularly in its depictions of Zamperini's youth — and a much darker rendering of the prison camps, which call to mind Sebastião Salgado's grimy photographs of Brazilian gold miners.

"In the end, its message is one we all need now more than ever — the journey of a man finding his way through the darkness and into the light," the filmmaker told the exhibitors, adding that the film had particular modern resonance as Zamperini is "someone who helps to remind us all what each of us is capable of."

In hindsight, it's clear even to Baer that Hillenbrand's book was needed to make the movie. "One could argue before the book came out that I was one of the leading experts on Louis' life," Baer said. "But what Laura did made me seem like I knew nothing. Absolutely, positively 100% Laura is the reason for 'Unbroken' finally happening."

As the movie approaches its Dec. 25 release, Baer looks back at all of the false starts and believes that all of the frustration and heartache was ultimately worth it. Had he somehow been able to make the movie earlier, it wouldn't have been to his mind as good as it is today.

"Everybody used to tell me, 'Why are you still talking about Zamperini?'" Baer said of all the doubters over the years. "And I said, 'Because I believe in it. And it's an amazing story.'"

john.horn@latimes.com

Read the full post (with some new photos from the film) at latimes













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Tuesday, February 25, 2014









video







Tom Brokaw’s interview with Angelina Jolie and World War II hero Louis Zamperini, the subject of Jolie’s film “Unbroken,” aired this morning on NBC’s “Today.” The pic, which Universal Pictures releases on Christmas Day, is her first studio pic as a director.
Brokaw put it to her that it was more than just filmmaking; for her it was personal. “You’ve got the legacy of this amazing man in your hands,” he said. Jolie agreed. “Such a huge responsibility to get it right,” she said. “I love him so much and he’s helped me so much in my life.”
Jolie explained how she came to adapt Laura Hillenbrand’s best-seller. “I wanted to direct something again, but I wasn’t sure what. It had to be something I would love and care about. It takes much more time away from your family and much more effort than acting,” she said.
Jolie also spoke about her difficulties in getting the project greenlit: “This has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “I had all the hours of phone calls and things, and then I made all these boards. I took my glue and tape and pictures off the internet, and I put all my boards in a garbage bag and carried them myself to Universal, and put them out… and I pitched my butt off.”




Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

 "I imagine that for the last 10-something years, (Zamperini has) been sitting there having a coffee in the morning and wondering who's going to make this movie," Jolie told Tom Brokaw Tuesday on TODAY. "And I've been sitting in my room laying there thinking, 'What am I supposed to be doing with my life? I wanna do something important ... I need some help. I need some guidance. Where is it?' And it was right outside my window."
Jolie and Zamperini are now dear friends, with Zamperini calling Jolie "honey" and "my gal" during the TODAY interview, and Jolie responding, "I love you."
The film has become "very personal" to Jolie, she told Brokaw. "(I feel) such a huge responsibility to get it right, because I love (Zamperini) so much, and because he's helped me so much in my life," she said.
The journey wasn't easy. "This has been the hardest thing I've ever done," Jolie said, relating that she handmade posterboards telling the "Unbroken" story in hopes of convincing Universal Studios that she could make the film. "I pitched my butt off," she said. (TODAY.com and Universal Studios are both divisions of NBC Universal.)
"It had to be something I would love and care about," she said. "'Cause it takes much more time away from your family and much more effort than acting."
Jolie said she feels Zamperini's inspirational story offers a bright light of hope for an often-troubled time. "(The world) can seem hopeless and it can seem very overwhelming," she said. "But the resilience and the strength of the human spirit is an extraordinary thing."

































screencaps from dailymail























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