NOW IN PRE-PRODUCTION

Watch this space.

Basketball Man gets new sales site

A full-fledged sales and information site for the 2-disc Basketball Man set has been opened at www.BasketballManMovie.com.

The news and information site for Frozen Pictures' new nonfiction film about the life and legacy of Dr. James Naismith will continue to run at www.BasketballManMovie.blogspot.com. So bookmark it now!

Basketball Man is being sold in select markets. It goes into general release on May 8th. You can order it now at the bargain price of $19.95 by clicking here.

CBS Sports says Basketball Man is "definitive"

The latest praise for Frozen Pictures' Basketball Man comes from CBS Sports. In an interview this week with star Ian Naismith, CBS Sportsline.com senior writer Dennis Dodd writes that the newly-released nonfiction film is the "definitive documentary on his grandfather," Dr. James Naismith.

The CBS writer caught up with Ian on the road in Iowa, where he's promoting the new Basketball Man DVD.

Basketball Man is the latest critically-acclaimed project produced by Frozen Pictures. It's the first presentation from Double Dog Sports & Entertainment.

Kansas City Star: Basketball Man is "great"

March 18, 2007

'Basketball Man'
a great tribute

They were going to make honest partners of each other, Ian Naismith and Renee DiGiulio. Tie the knot this summer at the annual camp for underprivileged children in the Caribbean they’ve helped through the Naismith International Basketball Foundation.

This would be after they’d toured the country promoting “Basketball Man,” the DVD documentary about Ian’s grandfather, James, the game’s inventor.

“We had big plans,” Naismith said.

Until cancer claimed DiGiulio in late February.

So the wedding was pushed ahead. With Renee in her Chicago hospital bed, Ian took her hand and said “I do.” Eleven days later, she died Renee DiGiulio-Naismith.

“I couldn’t be a prouder husband,” Naismith said. “We were good for each other in so many ways. She was so much a part of everything I do.”

Including “Basketball Man,” a wonderful tribute to James Naismith. I missed the first half of Ohio State’s escape act of Xavier on Saturday watching the production, and that featured a wide range of basketball personalities, from Steve Nash to Pat Summitt to David Stern and Bob Cousy.

They all spoke from the heart about basketball, as did Red Auerbach, whose final interview was with “Basketball Man” producers.

John McLendon, whose list of firsts as a black basketball coach will soon be the subject of a biography by Kansas Citian Milton Katz, speaks about one of his lasts — he was among Naismith’s final students to pass through Kansas’ physical education program.

There’s John Wooden, Michael Jordan, Sonny Hill, Bill Self, Jerry Colangelo, Oscar Robertson, Carmelo Anthony telling their stories.

Ian Naismith narrates with Sports Illustrated’s Alex Wolff serving as something of a copilot, having traveled the world to report on Naismith’s invention.

Naismith’s final 41 years at Kansas are fully explored, from his friendship and conflict with legendary coach Phog Allen — Naismith said basketball was to be played not coached, and Allen insisted otherwise — to his days as a traveling preacher to rural churches.

“There’s so much story to tell, and it really has never been told, not completely,” Ian Naismith said.

The Kansas City flavor includes interviews with former Kings Scott Wedman and Sam Lacey, along with former KU great Bud Stallworth. Did you know former Royals pitcher Al Fitzmorris had pipes? He composed and performs the film’s theme song, “One in a Million.” KC guys Keith Zimmerman and Dee Pack are the executive producers.

“We’ve always said in our family that basketball was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, but it was reared in Kansas,” Ian Naismith said.

The documentary, which made its debut at the NBA All-Star Game, took more than a year to make, but it’s been in the works for more than a decade. About then Ian Naismith called to get the word out. The Latrell Sprewell choking his coach incident turned his stomach, and Naismith could no longer tolerate the ugliness.

That’s when the foundation was started. In the early years, Naismith sponsored awards, recognized sportsmanship acts and traveled to deliver the message to whoever wanted to hear it. College teams shaking hands en masse after the national anthem has its roots in Naismith’s sportsmanship quest.

Two weeks ago, Naismith stopped in town to meet and greet friends and talk about the project. But Renee’s funeral was fresh in his heart. He dropped to his knees and talked to his wife. Only a couple of weeks earlier, they sat in the hospital room and watched “Basketball Man” together.

“I hope kids see this,” Ian Naismith said. “It’s about teammate, respect, dignity, all the things my grandfather stood for and wanted his game to be about.”

We chatted for a while. Naismith wanted to know about Texas sensation Kevin Durant, and smiled when told that his coach, Rick Barnes, said Durant’s best quality is his work ethic.

“My grandfather,” Naismith said, “would have liked that.”

Basketball Man hits the streets

Basketball Man is here.

Frozen Pictures' nonfiction film about the life and legacy of the game’s inventor is released today in a deluxe two-disc DVD set, which contains hours of extras, including extended interviews and rare footage.

The deluxe package will be introduced at a star-studded launch party in Kansas City.

The b-ball bash tips off at 5 pm at The Kansas City Star Press Pavilion. The event is open to the public-- and it's free.

The event is also a chance to meet basketball stars and legends like former Kings greats Sam Lacey and Scott Wedman, former Globetrotter Gator Rivers and ex-Missouri Tiger and Los Angeles Laker Clay Johnson, former KU greats Bud Stallworth and Lynette Woodard, along with the composer of the haunting “Theme from Basketball Man (One In A Million),” former Royals pitcher Al Fitzmorris.

“We wanted to launch the DVD in Kansas City with a big event like this because of all of the basketball history in this area,” says executive producer Keith Zimmerman. “With basketball’s history in Kansas City and the NAIA Tournament beginning later in the week (Wednesday) at Municipal, this was a natural.”

“Kansas City is the perfect place to introduce the DVD,” director Burt Kearns said today. “It was our home base when we were fanning out across the country to film this incredible story. And it’s only the beginning. People are responding to Basketball Man because it's not only about a great historic figure, but it's about the game today, and the people carrying on his work. We’ll be seeing a lot of Basketball Man events around the country.”

Basketball Man, already hailed as "epic", "superb", and a "slam dunk" was produced by Frozen for Double Dog Sports & Entertainment.

The DVD set will be rolled out in select markets before its national release on May 8th.

(PRE-ORDER THE 2-DISC BASKETBALL MAN SET HERE!)

Frozen resumes Michael Lohan reality TV project

Michael Lohan, father of superstar actress Lindsay Lohan, is set to walk out of prison at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 13th— and into the Frozen Pictures reality TV show he’d left behind more than two years ago.

The controversial Lohan, who’s scheduled to be released after two years in the Collins Correctional Center near Buffalo, N.Y., will be feted at a "welcome home" party at his mother's home in Long Island. But the former stockbroker, producer and actor is definitely not the same man who was hauled away amid restraining orders and probation violations. Once known as the "Hollywood Dad from Hell," he's now an ordained minister, ready to spread the word and “make amends for his past mistakes."

“Michael Lohan is a changed man,” says Frozen's Brett Hudson, who along with Lohan’s mother has been the only one to keep in regular contact with Lohan in stir. “I've spoken to him often and I know it. The last time around, Michael would never admit he’d done anything wrong. Now, he not only admits his past mistakes, but he wants to right the wrongs he’s done. And most of all, he wants to get his family back on track."

It was two years ago that Hudson and the Frozen team were filming a reality TV series pilot around Lohan called “Hollywood Dad.” At the time, Lohan was best known for his hunger for the spotlight, his altercations (with in-laws and a sanitation worker), passing out at Scores nightclub and his intensifying battles with his estranged wife (and Lindsay’s manager), Dina. After surviving a fiery DUI car crash on Long Island, he was sentenced to prison.

While checked into the Gray Bar Hotel, Lohan was ordained as a minister. “He’s serious about it,” says Hudson. “He’s actually going straight into the ministry when he gets out-- the Teen Challenge ministry to help runaways and kids on drugs— trying to straighten out their lives.

“But he’s still Michael in more than one way. He’s still very creative. You can see where Lindsay got her drive and her talent. He has a few reality shows he wants to pitch-- including one in which he and Lindsay are put on a desert island with Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson and their dads. We’ll be going along when he does that. We’ll be with him when he tries to ‘save’ some of his old Hollywood pals.

“And he’s got other ideas, like going out on Sunset Boulevard and giving a prostitute a hundred dollar bill-- not for sex, but for her time so he can talk to her and try to save her. He wants to make things right with the world. And especially with his family."

In January, Lohan wrote his daughter a letter, asking forgiveness and a reconcilitation. Life & Style magazine reported last month that Lindsay is in favor of it.

"It’s a fascinating look at the price of fame— and what it does to a family,” says Burt Kearns. “Two years ago, Michael was Bonaduce, Sizemore, the Diceman and Bobby Brown rolled into one. But his heart was always in the right place. God knows what he'll be like now that he's got religion. This was a great project in 2004 and it’s even better now. Because Michael’s better now.”

The Frozen team is joined on this project by Eric Cohen, the veteran comedy writer and producer with a formative connection to the Lindsay Lohan celebutante crowd: he created and produced So Little Time, the 2001 series starring Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.

Schlesinger stars in Frozen's new 'Presidents' DVD

He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who helped shape history while working in the Kennedy White House. But to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., his greatest accomplishment was dancing with Marilyn Monroe.

Schlesinger died last night at 89. But he revealed that secret— and blasted Oliver Stone— when we spoke with him at his home in Manhattan during production of All The Presidents’ Movies, Frozen Pictures’ acclaimed documentary series for Bravo that's now set for release in a deluxe DVD set in April.

The three-hour extravaganza, narrated by Martin Sheen, reveals the untold story of the White House theatre, where Presidents, their family friends and guests watch movies in private. And in these exclusive outtakes, Schlesinger spoke of his days with John F. Kennedy. And he reminisced about the famous JFK birthday party at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, when Marilyn Monroe serenaded the President in a gown she had to be sewn into.

“It was very tight,” Schlesinger recalled. And he recalled a party afterwards:

“Bob Benjamin gave a party after Marilyn Monroe sang ‘Happy Birthday To You’ at the Madison Square Garden. And Marilyn arrived. Her date that night was Arthur Miller’s father. You know that she had broken with Arthur Miller, but she was fond of the old man. And he came, and she was lovely. Rather spacey. I danced with her a couple of times. One of the great memories of my life. She was charming.”

Schlesinger was not so fond of Oliver Stone, and his movie about the JFK assassination:

"I did see JFK. And I thought it was a travesty on history. I went to Europe shortly after it, and I discovered people really believe Kennedy had been murdered by a complicated plot in which the FBI and CIA were involved, and even perhaps Lyndon Johnston. It was a skillful piece of filmmaking, and Oliver Stone is a slam-bang director, but it’s a very misleading film in my view."

He had a more favorable review for Roger Donaldson's 13 Days, which covered the Cuban Missile Crisis:

"I thought 13 Days was a pretty good movie. And generally historically accurate. I think the conflict in the film between the Kennedys, who were determined to get the missiles out peacefully, and the joint chiefs of staff was perhaps simplified, but it was based on the basic conflict in the policy.

"I thought the man who played JFK, Bruce Greenwood, was very good. The great historical inaccuracy was of course the exaggeration of the role of Kenny O’Donnell played by Kevin Costner. I mean, Kenny O’Donnell was a fine fellow, but he had very little to do with the Cuban Missile Crisis. But basically, unlike the Oliver Stone film, JFK, it seemed to me to be a dramatically effective, historically persuasive film."

What did he think about kids getting their history lessons from the movies?

"Well, it’s bound to happen. I mean, , beginning with Shakespeare, playwrights have drawn upon history for characters and conflicts and so on. And Hollywood, a level far below that of Shakespeare, is perfectly entitled to draw upon historical themes. You mentioned Oliver Stone. Oliver Stone’s 'Nixon' seemed to me quite a good movie. And it was historically accurate, whereas in JFK, it seemed to me a case of paranoia run wild. But you know, these things happen. And if people believe that Hollywood movies are the best way of teaching history, they are wrong. On the other hand, if people enjoy them as drama, it’s perfectly okay."

Schlesinger speaks in the documentary about JFK & Jackie's movie tastes. And he set straight the legend about JFK and James Bond:

“Jackie Kennedy was mostly interested in art house films. Foreign films she liked. And then she had very good taste in movies. But she enjoyed French movies particularly because she was bilingual in French. Jackie Kennedy was more interested in films than her husband. And she particularly liked international movies. And often he was bored by often these things. And he had other things on his mind. So often he would leave in the middle of a movie and go off and do some work.

JFK was said to be a James Bond fan.

“He’s reputed to be a great fan of the novels. But I always thought that was a publicity gimmick, rather like FDR’s alleged fondness for Home On The Range.’ Steve Early put out one of those press queries what was the president’s favorite song? Steve Early said ‘Home on the Range.’ Whenever FDR went out anywhere they played 'Home on the Range’ literally. He got sick of it. Kennedy enjoyed one or two of the Ian Fleming novels about James Bond. Enjoyed some of the movies about 007. I think it was exaggerated. It was kind of a publicity hook. He really read, spent most of his time reading history and biography rather than 007."

Stay tuned here for updates on the release of the All The Presidents' Movies DVD.

Schlesinger photos © Frozen Pictures