Motion pictures and the baseball business seem to go hand in hand. They both deal with team concepts. They are both very scripted. Very choreographed. In baseball you have batting practice. In films you have rehearsal. They both have lots of organizational meetings. They both deal with lots of money. Every team and every film has its one or two big stars.
The biggest thing that these two entertainment businesses have in common is that they cannot run without the big chief.
In baseball, we call him the manager. In movie land, we call him the director. Just like baseballs manager it’s the directors dream of the project that essentially takes us to the promise land. It’s the director that has to wear so many different hats on the set.
He has to be a good guy when he doesn’t want to be, some times he has to be the bad guy. There are many people working on the set also with great creative minds. However it is his mind that has the final say. Baseball is exactly the same way. The New York Yankees once had a great manager by the name of Billy Martin, whom I admired very much. I loved how he used his coaches so beautifully. Every one knew their roles, which in turn allowed him to deal with the task at hand. Making the team win. A movie is being shot in the Bronx called “STANO.” It’s a fictional story about a young man with a dream. It’s the story of most of our lives. It’s a story that can only be directed by a man with a very strong soul. That man is Raymond Defelitta.
Raymond is a strong director with many film credits including the very wonderful film “City Island,” which stared Academy award nominated actor Andy Garcia, a film that was also shot in the Bronx. When I was told by Bill Chartoff that Raymond was hired to direct “STANO” I was very happy, because I happen to know Andy Garcia for over 30 years. Andy did two films for Raymond,and if you know any thing at all about film making than you know that those were Garcia’s best performances. Understand, this is just my opinion. My reason is because Andy was so sincere in his delivery as an actor. Only a director can truly get certain things out of an actor in certain ways.
It’s the same thing in baseball.
Isn’t it crazy that even though Reggie Jackson hated Billy Martin so much, he still had his greatest moment (three homers in one World Series game) under Billy. Coincidence? Maybe. However that’s what the great directors do.
I’m very excited to watch Raymond lead Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara and the entire cast and crew of “STANO.” After reading the last draft of this film which is written so brilliantly by Robert Bruzio, I know that we are in for some magical moments in a film about the type of life that many others and me have at one time lived in the Bronx and many parts of New York.
The only other director that I have personally worked with that could possibly do this film is Francis Ford Coppola with whom I spent , months working with in a film called “The Cotton Club.” I say this in a very complimentary way because of my admiration for Francis and the respect that I have developed for Raymond in a very short time.
Again Kudos for the Chartoff Group for bringing the right director for the right film for the city that has the greatest stories to tell.
Billy Martin would have loved “STANO” but then again, the Boss would have as well.
