Rusty Gorman has the singular distinction of being the only Chicago filmmaker whose narrative motion picture will screen at the 2007 Chicago International Film Festival.
Gorman wrote and directed the $3.7 million feature, “Home of the Giants,” with a solid cast headed by Oscar-nominated Haley Joel Osment and rising star Ryan Merriman and Disney darling Danielle Panabaker.
“Giants” follows Indiana high school sports journalist Gar (Osment) as he’s persuaded by his best friend and basketball star Matt (Merriman) into robbing a drug dealer. Things don’t go as planned and Gar faces a desperate predicament with the state title and Matt’s future on the line.
Gorman says his coming-of-age film will “give more than you’d expect, with curveballs coming from different genres?lots of thriller, suspense, and humor elements.”
A seasoned writer/director, Gorman is no newcomer to the challenges of feature filmmaking. He spent more than a decade in L.A. learning his craft in different areas?and along the way earning an MFA in film from USC?after graduating NU in 1985.
The Indiana native wrote the “Giants” screenplay in 1997 but production didn’t take off until he met his producing partner Dan Schalk. “We started off as two guys trying to raise money to make the movie in summer of 2005,” said Gorman.
