Greg Ellis spent 12 seasons in the NFL as a starting defensive end, and all but one of them with the Dallas Cowboys.
The Wendell, North Carolina native didn’t go to a football power house in high school that embraced the Texas culture of Friday Night Lights — so it was a surprise to many When he retired five years ago, he set out to break into the business of Hollywood, with a blockbuster about a Texas power.
Ellis started his own production company, Play Now Enterprise, and set out to work on a project that combined both of his passions: A football movie.
Carter High, which will be released nationally Nov. 13, stars Charles S. Dutton and Vivica A. Fox and tells the story of the other team in Friday Night Lights, Dallas Carter High School, the powerhouse team of the late 1980s that beat Odessa Permian in the state playoffs en route to a championship, only to have the title later stripped and several of the team’s stars sent to prison on armed robbery charges.
Ellis sat down with BlackSportsOnline to discuss breaking into the filmmaking business, the stacked Carter High roster and what we can all learn from the other team in the movie.
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BSO: What inspired you to get involved, and make such a unique film?
GE: When I was still playing football, I started a small production company now called ‘Play Now Enterprise’. I dabbled in it in the beginning, doing more photography work than film.
Playing in Dallas for the Cowboys, I’d heard about it for years, because it is a very popular story. Carter was the team that played the Odessa team in the Friday Night Lights movie.
Arthur Muhammad, the guy who directed Carter High and wrote it, actually played on that Carter football team. He sat on this script for over a decade, more 13 years. He had been doing work for me for a couple of years, and he told me about it. To be honest with you, I wasn’t even interested in it at first because I thought it was just another football story. But after I went out and did my own research, I couldn’t believe the extreme details this movie had —and the true story behind it.
BSO: Carter High had some amazing talent, and that goes beyond the guys that made it to the NFL. Can you tell us a little bit about such an amazing group of talent including Clifton Abraham, Greg Hill, Derrick Cherry and Jessie Armstead.
GE: The talent level that particular team was off the charts man. They had kids on that team who didn’t even start, backups, who ended up getting college scholarships to big-time programs.
BSO: I read that Arthur didn’t even start, but still got a full ride?
GE: Arthur was one of those kids indeed.
He was a second-string receiver, and he ended up getting a scholarship to SMU, and that tells you just how talented that team was. The football coach, who was an amazing man even helped kids at other schools get scholarships. A phenomenal coach and great program at that time.
BSO: Do you believe that race, and the ethic makeup of the students at Carter played a role in how they were treated by the system.
GE: I think it had a lot to do with what went on. I mean when you look at it, the team initially had to forfeit the games Gary Edwards played in, but then had their playoff eligibility reinstated for the first postseason game.
They of course pushed on and continued win even as the legal wrangling continued through the playoffs. Of course we all know they stayed focused and pushed forward to win the state championship.
But then you take that group and stripped them of a championship in a way that makes you look at it differently.
you take that group of teenage kids playing football, and they go out and start to commit crimes, and get arrested.
BSO: Okay that goes on to my next question. Do you think guys like Gary Edwards and Derrick Evans getting grown man prison time was the right thing?
GE: Instead of the judge wanting to teach them a lesson, he sentenced some of those kids to 20 years in jail. It was some real extreme stuff. It was so extreme, if you ask me, and an excellent opportunity to teach young kids, especially athletes, that no matter how talented you are and how good your team is, if you don’t comply with the rules and do what you are supposed to do, you may never make it to the professional ranks, but I don’t know about prison.
BSO: Was it difficult assembling such a deep and talented cast.
GE: I thought Charles Dutton was the perfect character for this role. I thought he was very fitting. When we reached out to his agent, he was reluctant to do it at first, thinking it was the stereotypical football movie.
But when he actually took the time to go through the script and do some research on his own, he called us back and said, ‘Is this a true story?’ Arthur explained it to him, and Charles said, ‘You know what, I go around speaking to prisons, and I believe in helping out the youth, and this is something that should definitely help the youth out.’ Then Charles said he was in. That’s how we got Charles Dutton.
Vivica Fox was the same deal if even not more intense. She said that she believes in helping out the independent filmmakers. She said this was a good story and she pushed and offered to do whatever was needed to make sure this film was made man. Now, it was a challenge for us to be able to work around their schedules. We had to fly them in, fly them back out, fly them in, fly them back out. It was challenging, but I really appreciate them. Words or money cannot do enough to express the appreciation I have for all of those stars who allowed us to get this project done.
BSO: What would you like people to come away with after seeing such a powerful movie?
GE: Well if I could speak to the world right now, I’d want them to know and see that just because a powerful high school football team is 95% African-American and talented, they don’t have to be look at as thugs, but young, hardworking men.
T often the powers that be deem these star black athletes, whether its football or basketball, as thugs and street dudes, when they’re simply trying to survive in the communities that surround them. I want people to come away from this film understanding that.