Hollywood came to town as producers, celebrities, location owners and various other individuals were seen at downtown Augusta’s Miller Theater to view an earlier premiere of “The Hill” on Wednesday, Aug. 23.
With Director Jeff Celentano leading the project, audiences were looking forward to enjoying a film based on the true story of a famous former baseball star, Rickey Hill.
According to a press release from Film Augusta, a division of Destination Augusta, production of the film generated an estimated $5 million in local spending within 2021, and employed about 50 community crew members and over 500 background actors.
“In addition to hiring local crew, ‘The Hill’ generated economic impact in Augusta by paying local location fees, housed crew in local hotels, hired several local background extras and utilized additional local services,” said Jennifer Bowen, a film liaison from Film Augusta.
Assisted and inspired by Film Augusta’s dedication to compete with other major filming locations, Celentano said he chose the city as the most ideal film sight because of Augusta’s wide range of diversity and history.
Hill said he vehemently agreed with Celentano’s sentiments towards Augusta.
“It looks just like my hometown, and after living here for two months, I just love Augusta. I love the people; I really do,” said Hill. “They made me feel like I was a better man walking out of here.”
Celentano’s movie accounts how Hill overcame several physical, economical and emotional obstacles to master baseball and survive degenerative spine disorder, which he was diagnosed with in early childhood.
Hill, who grew up in an impoverished small-town in Texas, from a very young age had a natural affinity for pitching and decided to pursue a career in sports, despite his family’s numerous worries.
“When I read the script, I was blown away that this kid actually did what he did and created this miracle at the end that happened to him,” said Celentano. “To me, this movie is so different because of what he did and the odds he overcame … even Angelo Pizzo, who wrote Rudy, said, ‘This movie to me is just on a different level than even Rudy.’ He said that.”
Taking a nod from old Disney movies, like “Seabiscuit,” Celentano said he created the project with families in mind and the desire to give them something nostalgic and uplifting.
“That was my template for this movie,” he said. “Old Disney movies that you used to love … with 60s and 70s nostalgia thrown in.”
Falling in love with the story immediately after reading the script, Celentano said being a part of recreating Hill’s life was nothing short of memorable.
“It just got inside my heart, and it never left. This is a story the world has never heard and they really have to hear it,” he said. “It’s super special and it will inspire people in a way that I never imagined it could.”
After working on “The Hill” for many years, Celentano said he consistently saw signs throughout the project that confirmed for him everything was happening at the right time.
“For me, to see it with 1,000 people in theater and see their reaction will be overwhelming and I hope inspirational,” said Celentano. “Over all the years I spent making this film, to see it with an audience, cast and crew is really important to me … we had no idea when we filmed it that it was going to have such an impact.”
Following a screening in Texas, Celentano said he was approached by several proud audience members, one of them being a crying mother who claimed the movie changed her autistic son’s life.
“The audience was over the moon,” he said. “Those kinds of things are really special to me … this screening to me is going to be the highlight of my whole experience.”
Celentano said he hopes audiences leave with an incredible sense of inspiration and hope from Hill’s life story of perseverance.
“You know what happens to me when I watch it? I walk out of the film feeling high on inspiration,” he said. “I just feel like I can do anything … I want people to walk out feeling like there are no set rules in life.”
For his next project, Celentano plans on directing and producing “Long Way Dawn,” with some of the filming being completed in Augusta.
“It’s a music movie about a singer-songwriter who plays in a revival Christian band, and his father and him have an argument because he really wants to go to Nashville to live his dream,” he said. “He leaves his father and goes to Nashville, and finds out the world is not what he thought it was.”
While not necessarily a religious creator, Celentano said his wife inspired him to be more interested in presenting life-changing stories to audiences and making a more lasting impact. As shown in “The Hill,” Celentano said such stories will sometimes need a faith element highlighted in order to be more compelling and captivating to audiences.
Celentano said this element is also apparent in Hill’s story, as his father taught Hill one cannot love baseball more than God.
“I would never put baseball in front of the Lord,” he said. “But, in saying that, it’s something that [athletes] do battle with because you love the game so much,” said Hill. “Especially when you’re good, because then you love it even more.”
Hill said he hopes his story shows young viewers how to “look in the right direction” and keep focusing on things which truly matter, and to never give up.
“I hope people take away that love never stops, and that God never stops. His love is eternal,” he said. “That you don’t quit. You don’t give up and you never say never. The minute you say ‘never,’ the best thing could happen right after – like this film. They said this film could never be made and that I could never play professional baseball, but then I signed a major league contract.”
“The Hill” will be premiering throughout the nation in theaters this Friday, Aug. 25.
“I couldn’t ask for anything better. I don’t think this film could be made any better, and, if it could, it’d be cheating,” said Hill. “This movie is really for kids to learn that you just don’t stop. The second that you think you’ve lost is when you will win.”
