Oct. 31, 2024

Chasing Dreams The Journey of Bill Mikita and Baseball CinemaUntitled Episode

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Join us on this episode of the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball as we sit down with indie movie producer Bill Mikita. Discover the fascinating journey behind his film "Chasing 3000," inspired by his personal life and the legendary baseball player Roberto Clemente. Bill shares the challenges and triumphs of making the movie, the incredible cast that brought it to life, and the impactful stories that baseball can tell. We also dive into his upcoming project "Brewer's Boy," a story of an extraordinary high school baseball team during the Watts riots, and the inspiring legacy of Chet Brewer. Don't miss this inspiring conversation about passion, perseverance, and the power of storytelling through film.
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

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00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:09.205
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome, um, to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve, cheat.

00:00:18.625 --> 00:01:13.290
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome, um, to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I and a few guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today we're going to be talking about baseball as I am joined by indie movie producer Bill Makita. Bill had a film come out in 2007 called Chasing 3000. So we're going to be talking to him about the story surrounding that and why it was called that. He has a new film coming out. We're going to be talking about that and letting him describe that and why he decided to make it. Bill is a, uh, how can I say this? Bill is a real big baseball fan and ah, I'm a baseball fan as well. So he uses movies, baseball movies to tell inspiring stories.

00:01:13.442 --> 00:01:16.227
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So Bill, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> Bill Makita>Oh, thank you, Curtis, for having me on. Uh, it's a, a privilege and honor to be here with you this evening.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> Bill Makita>Oh, absolutely. So, um, uh, I am an attorney by education and uh, by profession.

00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:48.984
> Bill Makita>And um, I am married. I have four adult children. I have 11 grandchildren. And uh, I started this journey, uh, quite a while ago.

00:01:49.409 --> 00:02:07.025
> Bill Makita>Uh, and um, uh, many years ago, uh, my mother, uh, died of a brain tumor. Um, it was a short illness and she was uh, 60 years old and I was half her age.

00:02:07.525 --> 00:02:11.865
> Bill Makita>And so I thought, what if half of my life is over?

00:02:13.564 --> 00:02:24.185
> Bill Makita>What did I want to do with my life? And I wanted to write, but I had never expressed it to anyone. And so I had a friend who uh. And uh, I lived, lived in Cincinnati, Ohio.

00:02:25.004 --> 00:03:00.086
> Bill Makita>And um, I had a friend that uh, uh, got a job at Disney and Rick, uh, had named Rick Haskins. And I flew out and spent some time with Rick and he introduced me to a few producers. One of them was a producer named Barry Bernardi. Interesting guy. He's got a lot of credits. And, uh, he said, well, Bill, there's two ways to get into the, into the movie business. One is to start as a gopher and work your way up. And I thought, well, I'm 30 years old, I have a pregnant wife and two daughters. I hope option B is better than that.

00:03:00.270 --> 00:03:39.294
> Bill Makita>And he said, you have something that we want and we will pay you for it. And so I spent the rest of the day driving around la saying, thinking to myself, what did I have that no one else had? And I had a very interesting life growing up. I had a brother uh, who's disabled. I was very, we were very close. My brother Steve was born with a, um, rare form of muscular dystrophy called spinal muscular atrophy. And um, I thought, what if I, what if I wrote a story about my brother and me? And so at the time I, I bought books about how to write a screenplay.

00:03:40.034 --> 00:03:43.974
> Bill Makita>And I wrote a very autobiographical story.

00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:47.122
> Bill Makita>Um, very autobiographical.

00:03:47.299 --> 00:04:35.372
> Bill Makita>Wasn't terribly good and, and it was crudely written, but I got some attention from, uh, one, uh, or two producers. And one of them said the only, you know, the only reason we're, we're talking, Bill, is I feel your passion for this story. And so I almost sold it as an after school special. I don't know if you remember those back, uh, in the day. And um, so it gave me the encouragement to keep writing. And so that's what I did. I started, uh, to write screenplays and I wrote two or three screenplays. And then what I did is I went back to my original story and I put in a hook.

00:04:35.468 --> 00:04:57.473
> Bill Makita>The hook was that the boys, the brothers, go to see Roberto Clemente, their hero, get his 3,000th hit. And that's the inspiration that, um, I started to write. Then I wrote the screenplay called Chasing 3000. And it's about these two brothers who take off in 1972.

00:04:57.608 --> 00:05:09.165
> Bill Makita>A cross country trip and a race against time to see their hero, Roberto Comet, get his 3,000th hit. And along the way, the brothers learn the importance about being brothers.

00:05:12.144 --> 00:05:16.485
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, so tell us about the film Chasing 3000.

00:05:17.464 --> 00:05:30.574
> Bill Makita>Sure. So I, um, so what happened is I wrote the original draft and um, I, I, I tried to pitch it, or I did pitch it, I should say.

00:05:31.035 --> 00:06:08.985
> Bill Makita>And uh, tried uh, to get it made. And um, no one told me they, they didn't like the film but, or uh, I should say the screenplay. But um, the feedback I was getting was it was too small of a picture, meaning I learned it at the time as a screenwriter, meaning that it didn't appeal to enough people. Uh, it didn't have a broad enough appeal. And so I met a young writer, uh, actor, uh, named Chris, uh, Dunio. And Chris said, I really like your screenplay, Bill, but I think it needs to be bigger.

00:06:09.404 --> 00:06:43.384
> Bill Makita>And so what we did is over a Fourth of July weekend, a long weekend, we locked ourselves in a room on, uh, the Warner Brothers lot and we rewrote Chasing 3000. And we made it a bigger story, meaning, um, that we created a, a uh, bigger trip for the boys to travel across the country. We have made the stakes Higher. And we put in some elements to make the story more interesting. And so with that draft, that's the draft you see on the screen.

00:06:43.899 --> 00:06:49.175
> Bill Makita>Um, we took it out and tried to. Again tried to sell it.

00:06:49.714 --> 00:06:55.387
> Bill Makita>And I still wasn't having success in selling it.

00:06:55.531 --> 00:07:55.785
> Bill Makita>And one morning I woke up and I, um, I just told my wife, you know, I know people with money. I'm gonna, I'm gonna raise the money myself. So I went out and I, I talked to people, friends who were very wealthy. I talked to money people who were a hedge fund people, finance people. And um, some people were interested, uh, in the idea, some people weren't. But I had a friend who was very interested and he said, you know, I think we might have some investors who have an appetite for this kind of investment. And so, um, I had a young producer, um, named uh, uh, Ryan Johnson, who always loved the screenplay. He. I became familiar with it when I, I had another screenplay, a story called Downward Rush. It was a helicopter action picture. And I pitched it to um, Mandalay pictures, Amanda Lake Co. And they, and they passed on it. But, um, Ryan at the time was the development person.

00:07:56.285 --> 00:07:59.180
> Bill Makita>And uh, he read Chasing 3000.

00:07:59.333 --> 00:08:36.054
> Bill Makita>He loved it, but it wasn't right for Mandalay. But when Ryan went out on his own as a producer, he took the screenplay with him. And so, um, I reached out to Ryan and um, uh, I said to him, uh, what if I told you I had Chasing three thousand and two hundred thousand dollars? And he said, well, you know, I would tell you we can make that movie. And so, um, that was. Really wasn't true and I, uh, that we were going to need more. But it gave me, uh, again the.

00:08:37.034 --> 00:08:39.794
> Bill Makita>Lit a fire under me to go back.

00:08:39.914 --> 00:08:55.095
> Bill Makita>And I was able to raise$700,000. And we were going to make it at a time it was going to be a small movie, uh, a direct to video movie back in the blockbuster days. And so it was going to be a small uh, release.

00:08:55.875 --> 00:09:03.495
> Bill Makita>And Ryan lived in Marina Del Rey, um, near a. A, um, manager.

00:09:04.034 --> 00:09:31.394
> Bill Makita>And the manager, uh, one of the people she managed was Ray Liotta. And so, uh, the manager got the screenplay to Ray Liotta and we were less than a week away from filming in Pittsburgh and we still did not have the lead cast and Ray Liotta committed to the movie. And then it really, then we became something big.

00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:42.995
> Bill Makita>Um, but because of what we, we had $700,000. We were going to have to hire Ray. That $700. Hundred. That$700,000 was going to go Rather quickly.

00:09:43.495 --> 00:10:12.485
> Bill Makita>So I was. We were able to go back to the investors and, and and uh, to get, and also got a loan and we were able to raise 1 uh.2 million for a total of 1.9 million to shoot the movie. And so we shot it for four days in Pittsburgh and about 24 day shooting in LA with seat with scenes doubling for the boys crossing the country in this and this road trip.

00:10:14.345 --> 00:10:22.264
> Bill Makita>And so that, that's the story, that's basically the story based on my brother and me and uh, our hero Roberto Clemente.

00:10:22.924 --> 00:10:30.644
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So talk about the uh, other uh, cast members that, that were also in the film as well as Ray Leola. Leota.

00:10:30.684 --> 00:10:55.654
> Bill Makita>Yeah. Well that, that's a good, a good question because with, with Ray Liotta committing to the film a lot of people, a lot of actors wanted to be in the movie uh because they wanted to be in a Ray Liotta movie even though they may not have scenes with him. But uh, we have uh, Keith uh David. In fact the film opens with a ah scene with, with Ray Leotardo and Keith David. A great scene.

00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:01.174
> Bill Makita>Um, and that sort of sets the emotional tone for the entire story.

00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:07.254
> Bill Makita>Um, and so uh, Keith David is in the movie. And we got Lauren Holly.

00:11:07.995 --> 00:11:19.330
> Bill Makita>The, the younger version of the boys were played by uh, Trevor Morgan and Rory Culkin. And uh, we had Emmett M. Walsh and um.

00:11:20.220 --> 00:11:21.080
> Bill Makita>Uh.

00:11:23.860 --> 00:11:33.019
> Bill Makita>Uh, Lori Apetti. Uh, we. We just had an incredible cast and um. We uh.

00:11:33.865 --> 00:11:50.504
> Bill Makita>Seymour Cassell plays the grandfather role and people couldn't believe the cast we um. We were able to uh, secure but largely uh, because of Ray Liotta.

00:11:52.205 --> 00:12:01.225
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So why is it important to check out or be aware of pivotal sports moments in the 21st century?

00:12:03.445 --> 00:12:19.754
> Bill Makita>Well, uh, that's an interesting question. You know, for me we seem to be such a divided nation anymore and we, we concentrate on things that divide us instead of things that bring us together.

00:12:20.654 --> 00:12:32.539
> Bill Makita>And baseball is one of those things in the history of our country I think that has always brought us together. Um, and um.

00:12:32.539 --> 00:13:15.835
> Bill Makita>Roberto Clemente in my mind I grew up near Pittsburgh. He was the greatest right fielder of all time. And he uh, was a five tool player before that term became popular. And to see him play as often as we did and um, what he meant to us, uh, especially the children of my generation, um, uh, growing up in the 60s and 70s, um, I think people need to know um, about Roberto Clemente and the impact that he had on these two brothers. And um, he was a um. He was a great man.

00:13:15.914 --> 00:13:53.504
> Bill Makita>I often say Roberto Clemente would have been great at anything he did, whether he was a doctor or a teacher, a minister, whatever he chose to go into. He, he had greatness in him and he, um, was a humanitarian. And, um, when we shot in Pittsburgh, you would be amazed at everyone who, once they knew we were making this movie, uh, people would share with us a Roberto Clemente story, whether it was the doorman at the hotel or a CEO, uh, uh, of the bank.

00:13:53.965 --> 00:13:56.384
> Bill Makita>And they were all positive stories.

00:13:57.164 --> 00:14:10.948
> Bill Makita>He was truly a great man. And one of the highlights of my life was, uh, sitting down in Pittsburgh at a game in the, in the, in the pirate box, uh, when I met. Met his widow, uh, Vera, and I got.

00:14:10.996 --> 00:14:15.825
> Bill Makita>Getting her blessing to make the movie. It was, uh, one of the highlights of my life.

00:14:19.294 --> 00:14:20.695
> Bill Makita>And so I, I guess.

00:14:20.735 --> 00:14:21.431
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

00:14:21.462 --> 00:14:29.740
> Bill Makita>I'm sorry. I guess that. I'm not sure I answered your question in that. That bully. But, but I guess my, um.

00:14:31.054 --> 00:15:02.700
> Bill Makita>I think the reason we need to reflect on, not only to that, that baseball unites us, but to see how far we, we've, We've. We've come as a people, as a nation. And um, you know, um, my two grandfathers were immigrants from Eastern Europe. All my grandparents were immigrants and they became American citizens and they loved everything about America, including baseball, uh, which is fascinating. And, um.

00:15:03.924 --> 00:15:23.784
> Bill Makita>And so, you know, it's. I know the sport is fading a little bit, unfortunately, uh, with I think the younger generation. But, uh, I, I would love to keep it alive, uh, to be a part of that, because I think it is an important part of our history.

00:15:24.845 --> 00:15:38.865
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, speaking about important part of history, talk about how, you know, why it's important to get stories that are all that are commercially but are also socially impactful as well.

00:15:40.455 --> 00:17:10.325
> Bill Makita>Well, um, you know, you, you've brought up an interesting point and I, I shared this in another podcast in the last month or two. And that is, um, there are a lot of movies that are made, I call them film, um, festival movies, movies, um, that are very good, um, but they don't have a broad enough appeal. And um, you know, if you make a movie, I, I, uh, believe you, you need to make a movie that is going to get an audience and, and also because of that can get distribution and to be able to get a distributor is key in filmmaking. And so the bigger the story, the bigger the stakes, uh, the more impactful the, uh, message is going to be. And I think you see that in baseball movies more than any other sports movies. Somehow baseball is analogous to life. I don't know how necessarily in every way, but that's. My theory is that baseball is really presents, uh, this, I don't know, this hope. There's always tomorrow, right? There's always another game.

00:17:10.759 --> 00:18:15.595
> Bill Makita>Um, you don't have to wait a week for your game. You know, you've got another one the next day. And that's life. Sometimes we have a bad day. Hey, we, you know, we got it tomorrow. We got another day tomorrow. Let's, let's make it a better day. And um, I think, uh, the younger generation needs to know, um, not only the struggles that um, you know, players had, uh, who may be African American or ah, Latin players. Certainly Roberto Clemente had a dual, um, bias to overcome. And he did, um, not only, um, what, you know, um, because he was a black player, but, you know, having Spanish as his first language. It was a. It was, it was difficult for him today. It's, it's, you know, he is, um, the most important player, the most important Latin player. He wasn't the first, but he is absolutely the most impactful Latin player, um, in the game.

00:18:15.755 --> 00:18:25.244
> Bill Makita>And um, he has revered, uh, greatly, um, uh, throughout all of Latin America. Uh, and so.

00:18:27.384 --> 00:18:40.285
> Bill Makita>But also, uh, we, you know, we had. He had that same impact on us, uh, growing up in Pittsburgh. And um, I think, I, uh, think the younger generation needs to know that it's important to keep those stories alive.

00:18:42.144 --> 00:18:45.057
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, let's talk about your new film, Brewer.

00:18:45.121 --> 00:18:53.280
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Brewer's Boy. So kind of tell us about that when it's coming out and talk about the timely release of the film. You know, because, uh, baseball.

00:18:53.353 --> 00:18:58.808
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Just recently you talked about, you know, Roberto being black, but, you know, they.

00:18:58.856 --> 00:19:02.765
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>They've introduced the Negro League records as well. So tell us about that.

00:19:03.105 --> 00:19:17.923
> Bill Makita>Yeah, um, and um, so we haven't shot the film yet, so we're still uh, looking, uh, to cast the movie and get. Get our director. I've written the screenplay, we secure some. Some money.

00:19:18.019 --> 00:19:28.535
> Bill Makita>We're looking for a distributor. But this is, uh, one of the greatest, if not the greatest baseball movie that you don't know about.

00:19:29.410 --> 00:19:54.414
> Bill Makita>Um, and so what happened is when Chasing 3000 came out, it was around the time of Facebook, and people would reach out to me or my brother and say, hey, you know, are you the Bill Makita that made this movie? And one morning I had a, um, message from someone and said, hey, I saw your movie last night. I really loved it. I thanked him and I asked him, I said, go ahead and send me a friend request.

00:19:55.755 --> 00:20:04.080
> Bill Makita>And uh, he did and sent me a message. He said, I have a great idea for a movie. And as you know, some people do, some people don't.

00:20:04.272 --> 00:20:30.257
> Bill Makita>But, um, uh, I gave him a call and we chatted. And he said, I played on the greatest high school baseball team of all time. I said, really? Yeah. He said, we won the LA Municipal League in 1965 during the Watts riots. I said, so the city was in turmoil. Yeah. City was burning around you. Yeah. And you played a baseball game.

00:20:30.361 --> 00:20:32.924
> Bill Makita>Yeah. I'm in already. Right.

00:20:33.505 --> 00:20:47.704
> Bill Makita>And so I said, well, just out of curiosity, who was on your team? And he said, well, there was Reggie Smith, Bobby Tolan, Bob Watson, Doc Ellis. Whoa, whoa, whoa, timeout. You're telling me all these future major leaguers were on your team?

00:20:47.865 --> 00:20:56.232
> Bill Makita>Yeah. And Dennis Gilbert. Dennis Gil. You mean the Dennis Gilbert who just tried to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers? Dennis Gilbert? Yeah.

00:20:56.409 --> 00:20:59.128
> Bill Makita>Short white guy? Yeah. So you were an integrated team?

00:20:59.217 --> 00:21:33.106
> Bill Makita>Yeah. And our, and our, our coach was this really inspirational guy named Chet Brewer, and he was a pitcher in the Negro Leagues and he uh, was uh, a father figure to us and a mentor and he kept us out of trouble and he taught us about baseball. And uh, I said, you know, wow, I'm just, I'm blown away. Oh, and, oh, and by the way, our nine year old bat boy was Eddie Murray. I said, you mean the greatest switch hitting first baseman of all time? Yeah. He was your bat boy? Yeah.

00:21:33.250 --> 00:21:36.075
> Bill Makita>I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

00:21:36.234 --> 00:21:41.987
> Bill Makita>So I did my homework. I saw all these guys, grew up in South Central Los Angeles.

00:21:42.171 --> 00:21:52.335
> Bill Makita>And so I optioned the story and I started and I got to meet some of these players. I got to meet Dennis Gilbert and um, Bobby Tolan, Bob Watson.

00:21:52.634 --> 00:22:12.575
> Bill Makita>And um, they were gracious and they, and they shared this um, more ah, uh, of the story with me as I took notes. And the story just kept getting bigger. And they said, one day we came to practice and this tall, lanky gentleman was teaching Doc M. Ellis how to throw a curveball. It was Satchel Page.

00:22:13.434 --> 00:22:19.269
> Bill Makita>And um, said, did you have a, did you have trouble beating a certain team? Yeah. Who was their pitcher?

00:22:19.356 --> 00:22:20.704
> Bill Makita>Raleigh Fingers.

00:22:21.724 --> 00:23:17.121
> Bill Makita>And um, they said, you know, there was this 24 year old Scout who came to all of our games. We called him Tommy. Tommy Lor? Yeah, Tommy Lor. You know. And then they said, oh, we, to this day we still tease, uh, this guy who was a skinny kid who never made any chess teams. His name, Ozzie Smith. And it is unbelievable. So Jet Brewer is the greatest baseball guy you've never heard of. Jet Brewer coached 24 future major leaguers. And um, it is just, it is an incredible story. Um, and it is uh, you know, my fear. I have a theory that I've developed living uh, with this um, with this story and writing my screenplay that this was right before the influx of all the great Latin players. Anyone who was.

00:23:17.192 --> 00:23:31.349
> Bill Makita>Anyone came out of la, uh, uh, Southern, uh California was the nexus of the baseball world. It's just fascinating. All these great players came out of la and uh.

00:23:31.520 --> 00:23:37.106
> Bill Makita>So you know, we had this incredible uh, uh story uh about Chet Brewer.

00:23:37.290 --> 00:24:02.654
> Bill Makita>And to your point, um, the uh, all of these statistics, all the players have now been uh, recognized by Major League Baseball. And I believe Chet Brewer, he was a pitcher in the Negro Leagues. He actually beat um, Satchel Page, uh, with a one nothing, no hitter, um, uh, in his career. But um, you know, he's not in the hall of Fame, Shed is not.

00:24:02.964 --> 00:24:19.573
> Bill Makita>And I think he's deserving of that. And one of my motivations to get this movie made is to get Shed Brewer in the hall of Fame. He was uh, again uh, fascinatingly enough, like Roberto Clemente. He was a transformative figure.

00:24:19.628 --> 00:24:42.734
> Bill Makita>He, he, he influenced baseball and, and the lives of these players to a degree that um, influenced the entire league. When if you remember Doc Ellis pitched that no hitter and the ah, famous no hitter when he was on lsd.

00:24:43.115 --> 00:24:48.694
> Bill Makita>And uh, uh he gave the, he came, he gave the game ball to Chet Brewer.

00:24:49.390 --> 00:24:54.529
> Bill Makita>Uh, that's what he, what he meant to these players. And uh.

00:24:54.529 --> 00:25:09.305
> Bill Makita>And so we're working on getting distribution and uh, we're hoping to get it into production um by the end of the year. But that's where we're at with that story.

00:25:11.244 --> 00:25:18.585
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Wow. Well I definitely hope you can. What else are you working on that listeners uh need to be aware of besides the movie?

00:25:19.444 --> 00:26:37.065
> Bill Makita>Well, I have a um. I have a um, ah, pilot that I've written ah for a TV project, um, called American um Heroes and it's based on uh, the 442nd. I don't know if you know anything about the 442nd but another fascinating story that they were made up completely of Japanese American soldiers and um, they fought bravely in Europe, mostly in uh, Italy and France. And they were the highest, uh, I think they had the most Purple Hearts but they also had, they had 22 uh, medal of Honor winners. And so um, it would be a limited series, about eight episodes and each episode we would tell the story of this, this incredible um, group of soldiers during World War II while their, while Their families were interned back here in America. They fought very bravely for their country and, um, had the highest number of, uh, Medal of Honor winners of any battalion.

00:26:39.244 --> 00:26:45.070
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah, I have heard of them. That's great. I definitely hope that that uh, comes out as well.

00:26:45.222 --> 00:26:59.430
> Bill Makita>Yeah, yeah, that. So we're working on that. But it's, uh, you know, the. It's. It's not easy to make independent movies. It's um, just, you know, it's just, as you well know, it's just, uh. Um.

00:26:59.855 --> 00:27:29.640
> Bill Makita>It can be a, um. It can be. It's a challenge. But, um, you know, uh, I learned a lot. Um, chasing 3,000 was the first film that I made and um, you know, we're like a lot of things in life. Um, you know, my brother. I didn't have an opportunity to share with you my. The story of my brother because he's. He um, died less. Less than two years ago. But he had, um.

00:27:29.640 --> 00:27:32.640
> Bill Makita>So, you know, it's a painful, um.

00:27:32.700 --> 00:27:35.244
> Bill Makita>Um. It's a sort of a.

00:27:35.565 --> 00:28:07.335
> Bill Makita>A hole in my life. But, um, you know, Steve lived. Talking about, uh, inspirational characters. Steve lived his incredible, uh, life. He thrived, uh, even though he was disabled and lived in a wheelchair all his life. And um, most of these children that have spinal muscular atrophy never lived to be 18, and my brother lived to be 65. He was the oldest person they knew of who had it. And uh, he.

00:28:07.454 --> 00:28:10.035
> Bill Makita>He was the first wheelchair student at Duke University.

00:28:10.615 --> 00:28:42.299
> Bill Makita>And he was an absolutely, uh. Just a miracle of a per. You know, of a baby of a person, uh, growing up. Uh, but he also, uh, was this inspirational, uh, person, uh, in people's lives, in my life and my family's life, in his friend's life. And um, uh, you know, to excel as he did with everything that he had to overcome, uh, it was truly, um. Um.

00:28:42.299 --> 00:28:44.714
> Bill Makita>Just incredible.

00:28:46.575 --> 00:28:50.055
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Absolutely. And my condolences to you for your loss.

00:28:50.214 --> 00:28:51.310
> Bill Makita>Oh, well, thank you.

00:28:51.462 --> 00:28:54.414
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, so we can keep up with everything that you're up to.

00:28:54.535 --> 00:29:00.028
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Throw out your contact information and also tell us what we can watch. Uh, Jason 3000. Okay.

00:29:00.106 --> 00:29:40.394
> Bill Makita>Uh, yeah, chasing three. You can get three chasing 3000 on Amazon on Tubi. Um, I think it's on, uh, YouTube and um, so, uh, you can get it, um, uh, on those stream. There's maybe one or two others. I think it's on Roku, so you can get on all of those streaming platforms. And uh, you know, I'd love for you to watch the film. I think you'll love it. It's a family friendly Film, uh, and you know as well as I do there's not a lot of those out there anymore. But it's uh, something where you can sit down with as a family and watch.

00:29:40.894 --> 00:29:49.555
> Bill Makita>And I think uh, you'll be inspired by the story of um, uh, these brothers and of uh, Roberto Clemente.

00:29:50.214 --> 00:30:09.515
> Bill Makita>But you can find me on, on um, uh, uh, Facebook, on uh, Instagram, on X and Bill, uh, Makita M I K I T A and um, just, I'm uh, just grateful for this opportunity, Chris.

00:30:10.255 --> 00:30:13.674
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah. Because I definitely want to check out that new film when it comes out.

00:30:15.055 --> 00:30:40.295
> Bill Makita>I'll keep you in for it. We're looking at, you know, we are looking for some equity. So if there's uh, we're looking for a producing partner. So if um, you have uh, within your listening audience, uh, uh, other producers who are interested in projects, uh, we are looking for some, some additional equity and uh, a producing partner to uh, get us over the finish line.

00:30:40.835 --> 00:30:55.317
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, definitely. So listeners, there you go. So make sure you share it to everybody and we try to get, build some more equity. Close this out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

00:30:55.500 --> 00:32:13.595
> Bill Makita>Just um, you know, don't give up. Um, it took me 15 years as a writer, uh, which sounds like a long time and it is. And you know, I was married and had children and, and uh, and you know, you, you face, you know, I faced a lot of rejection. You do as a writer, um, and you uh, do in Hollywood, of course. But, um, you know, I, I, I was just determined to, to get this movie made. And um, you know, too many people will tell you that you can't do something. And um, I learned uh, through this experience that I had a vision of what I, what I, what I knew I could do. And, and so my attitude was either you're going to help me or you're going to get, you're going to get out of my way. And um, as the more I did it, the more impatient I got with people that weren't going to help me, that were there just to simply say, well, Bill, you can't do what you're doing. And uh, you know, and so I guess my last thought to your audience would be is to um, simply keep moving forward with your vision.

00:32:15.734 --> 00:32:21.711
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, keep moving forward with your vision. And please be sure to follow rate review.

00:32:21.903 --> 00:32:41.616
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Share this to everybody. Let's try to help Bill get some more equity and jump on your favorite podcast app. Leave Us a Review Follow Us Share the Show if you have any guests or suggestion topics, Curtis Jackson 1978@att.net is the place to send them. Bill, thank you for all that you're doing.

00:32:41.681 --> 00:32:43.144
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>And thank you for joining us.

00:32:43.265 --> 00:32:48.244
> Bill Makita>Oh, thank you sir. You're very gracious. Um, I'm glad I had, uh, this opportunity to talk to you.

00:32:48.865 --> 00:33:01.441
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream podcast, visit www.com until next time, stay focused on Living the Dream.

00:33:01.512 --> 00:33:01.744
> Bill Makita>Dream.