The movie Chance is coming to a big screen near you.
The locally produced and filmed baseball movie will have its world premiere at the Starlite Drive In at 2255 SR 125 in Amelia this Friday, May 22 at 9 p.m.
The movie is scheduled to run through Sunday, May 24, but may be extended by the drive in if ticket sales warrant.
Chance was originally scheduled to open regionally in early April, but the reaction to the Corona Virus shut down movie theaters, which remain closed.
But drive-ins, which had been fading from society since their heydey in the 1950’s and 1960’s, are now uniquely suited to present movies on the big screen while allowing people to remain socially distant.
Because of the current circumstances, Chance may be the first new movie to be released on a big screen in the United States since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March.
“There are 355 drive-ins in the United States and those are probably the first place we are going to look after the Starlite,” said Executive Producer Mike Daly.
Filming on Chance took place in the summer of 2018. The movie was produced and written by the Daly family. Mike and his wife Pamela served as executive producers and Mike and his son Seth wrote the script. Pamela also starred in the film.
Chance stars Matthew Modine as Coach Mike Daly, as well as teen stars Blake Cooper, Tanner Buchanan and Amanda Leighton.
The movie is based on the true story of Chance Smith, who played Flash Baseball for Daly beginning when he was six years old. He committed suicide at age 16 in 2012.
Daly said that the movie is a window into the emotional stresses that come with teenage relationships.
We used police reports and we used the actual text messages from the kids, so you are looking inside a world that nobody has ever seen before where you are seeing kids texting from their actual messages,” he said.
Daly said that success for him and his family won’t be in box office reports, but in saving lives.
“We are hoping to partner in the cause of preventing teen suicide and take this film wherever there is an audience,” he said.
Part of that commitment is reaching out to school superintendents and principals, pastors, baseball coaches and others who work with teenagers. Daly screens the film for them and talks about ways to facilitate discussion about teen suicide.
“One of those organizations is called ‘Grant Us Hope.’ They have hope squads in high schools who are there to keep their eyes open, to be there for their peers,” Daly said.
He added that he hopes the movie will help with removing the reluctance to talk about teen suicide.
“This movie creates discussion. People who have seen it say that it profoundly affected their family and stimulated a discussion,” Daly said.
“We want the message in the movie to be seen. We believe its well done and we know it touches hearts. We have been in a room with 300 people watching it at a time and we know the whole audience is touched. We just need for it to be seen so it can be successful.”
Both Mike and Pamela Daly said that the current situation with the pandemic might be a small blessing in disguise when it comes to getting their message out.
“People have had more time with their families than normal, so it’s a really good time to have families together to watch something like this,” Mike Daly said.
“People are struggling mentally and emotionally during this pandemic. This is a ray of light for them,” added Pamela.
When asked what commercial success for the movie, Daly said that it all comes down to ticket sales.
“(Distributors) look at past success when they decide whether to bring a movie in, especially now during these times. So it’s important for us to do some box office, not because we care about that, but because we want the message to get out on an ongoing basis,” Daly said.
“We are very excited and so are all of our friends and local people that were in the movie. There are people that work at the drive-in that were in the movie or auditioned for the movie.”
Anyone who wants to get involved with the teen suicide prevention mission may get more information by e-mailing
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