Their debut feature, Pinball: The Man Who Save
d the Game, was released this year. It stars Mike Faist, who was in the remake of West Side Story, Crystal Reed, and Dennis Boutsikaris. The film is based on a true story of Roger Sharpe, the person who helped overturn New York City's ban on pinball in 1976.
Synopsis of Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game (IMDb):
In the 1970s, Roger Sharpe was a New Yorker struggling to rebuild his life as a writer, with his only escape being playing pinball. Although Roger finds work with a magazine and love with a woman, Ellen, whom he first met in an elevator, he discovers that the City has banned pinball for decades as gambling. With this challenge to his passion, Rogers is inspired to write first a magazine article and then a book about pinball with Ellen and her son, Seth, helping him. Although reluctant to answer the call by the Music and Amusement Association to join the fight to change the pinball law, Roger finds the need for a little fairer world is broader than just pinball as his love with Ellen is challenged by his frustrations. With that, Roger struggles to find a balance even as life leads him to accomplishing the improbable with one pull of the plunger.
The film was acquired is now available on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and more.
1. List three adjectives to describe the real-life Mr. Roger Sharpe?
Meredith: - Generous. Open. Loquacious.
2. What is the genesis of Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game?
Austin:- Somewhere along the lines we came across the famous-in-pinball-circles photo of Roger, with this amazing mustache and surrounded by scowling New York City council members, playing playball to prove it was a game of skill and not chance. The fact that pinball was illegal seemed so preposterous to us. We filed it away in a Google doc filled with nascent story ideas.
Meredith:- We didn’t email Roger until February 2020. At that point I was thinking it might be a short documentary. I got on the phone with him and we chatted for about three hours. When I hung up I contacted Austin and said “I think this might be a feature.” He had told me about all the other non-pinball things happening in his life. It felt like there was a more universal story worth delving into.
3. What was your writing schedule when you wrote the screenplay?
Meredith:- We spent the first few months just doing research and interviews. Hours and hours of zoom calls with Roger and others. We dug through news archives, court cases, and other pinball history.
Austin:- I think we started writing in earnest towards the end of that summer and delivered the script in December 2020.
4. Was your original plan to direct the film in a faux documentary style or were there other ideas you had in mind?
Meredith:- That idea was baked in pretty early on. We liked the framing device, of having an older Roger narrate his life, reigning in the directors who want to embellish his story.
5. Mike Faist plays young Mr. Roger Sharpe in this film. Could you talk about your experience working with him?
Meredith:- The man is a saint. Not only is he ridiculously talented, he’s incredibly smart and fun to be around.
When you have an actor who is essentially in every scene, their attitude and professionalism really can make or break the entire production. Mike was a dream to have on board.
6.Could you give a fun fact about your experience working with Dennis Boutsikaris, Crystal Reed, Christopher Convery and/or any other cast members in this film?
Austin:- I remember jumping on a zoom with Dennis when we were casting. Within two minutes he was making fun of us. We immediately knew we had our guy.
Meredith:- The chemistry between Crystal and Mike stands out to me. It’s an absolute joy to watch people at the top of their craft knocking it out of the park take after take. Their performances were playful, creative, and in the moment. Throughout the film Crystal gives these looks that are just so perfect. That’s one great thing about making a film: you get to rewatch some of your favorite experiences.
Austin:- Christopher and Crystal knew each other from Gotham, so that relationship was there before they both got on set. Seeing them together was like watching a family reunion.
Meredith:- Our entire cast was superb, both on screen and off. Hats off to our casting director Lindsey Weissmueller who kept putting amazing people in front of us. Our only regret is that we couldn’t cast all of them.
7. Did the real-life Mr. Roger Sharpe make a cameo in the film? If so, in what scene did he appear in?
Meredith:- He does! If you look closely during the Chicago montage, the real Roger Sharpe shows Mike how the flipper mechanism works.
Austin:- We were also lucky enough to have Roger on set when we were shooting inserts of the games. So we brought Roger over to help us out. We’d get the camera framed, tell him where we needed the ball to hit, and he’d immediately nail it. The guy is that good!
8. Between the two of you, who is better at playing pin-ball (or any other games)?
Austin:- I would say both of us are equally terrible at pinball. Not as bad as we used to be perhaps, but still pretty lacking. We had a solid ping-pong rivalry for a while though.
Meredith:- The only game where I have an edge on Austin is the board game Carcassonne. Everything else he dominates. It’s infuriating.
9. Congratulations on Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game film winning the 2022 Audience Choice Award, share your thoughts/ feelings on winning the award?
Meredith:- It’s always humbling and gratifying that people like the film. When you set off to do something like this for the first time, it’s a risk. It’s a risk for us, it’s a risk for our amazing producers, MPI Original Film, it’s a risk for the actors who are trusting first time feature directors to not screw it up. Knowing that people are enjoying it is a relief, really.
10. Before becoming screenwriter/director, you got your start at a TV station in Arlington, Virginia, where you produced amateur superhero series. Could you describe your experience working as a TV producer and how those skills helped you in your current position?
Austin:- That might be stretching the definition of “TV producer,” but it certainly helped us exercise our problem solving skills. A great deal of the directing process is figuring out how to effectively tell a story within certain constraints, so having lots of reps on a smaller scale certainly helped on set.
11. What was your favorite film when you were a kid? What is your favorite film now (besides the films you created)?
Meredith:- As a kid: Star Wars was pretty high on that list. Monty Python and the Holy Grail got played a lot as well. Harder to choose a current favorite, but we’re big fans of Edgar Wright and Armando Iannucci.
12. Have you read any fiction or non-fiction book that you would like to adapt and direct into a film or TV series?
Austin:- Too many to count! I think anytime you read something that grabs your attention you can’t help but imagine how you might adapt it for the screen.
13. If you had your own talk show, who would your first three guests be?
Meredith:- The top three people who gave us a talk show so I could ask them what the hell they were thinking!
14. What’s your idea of a downtime?
Meredith:- My wife will attest that I’m very bad at downtime. Even when I should be relaxing, I’m contemplating possible future projects. It’s unhealthy, really.
14. Last question, did you watch the 95th Academy Awards? If so, what was your favorite moment from the program?
Austin:-I did not watch, but it’s always nice to see a comedy win the Best Picture category.
Meredith:- Agree. What struck me was how much love the EEAAO folks felt for one another. Actors, crew, directors – every time they spoke you got the feeling they had a ball making the film, that they had created a set that oozed fun and creativity. That was important for us when we were making Pinball and the world would be a better place if it’s the new normal for film sets everywhere.