February 7, 2025 • 31 mins
Several years ago, Scott LeRette started jotting down notes about his incredibly unique son, Austin. That story, and this Red Oak family's journey, has become a major motion picture that debuts this month (with SHAZAM playing Scott!).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Vordies. I can't remember how long it's been since
we talked with this guy from the thriving community of
Red Oak, Iowa, not far away here Omaha Council Bluff's
greater metropolitan area. But this guy, Scott M. Lorett, was
on the show here and said, I wrote a book.
(00:21):
I've got a really interesting kid, and we called the
book The Unbreakable Boy. A father's fear, a son's courage,
and the story of unconditional love. And Scott told me
about this kid and his family and the book. And
then a few years later he's like, they want to
make a movie out of it, Like, yeah, that, we'll
(00:43):
see how that goes. And then a few years later,
Scott's like that they made a movie. The movie's coming out,
And I was actually sitting there seeing something and one
of the trailers was for this movie, The Unbreakable Boy.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
First to Austin, think his brains from Nope, my brain
is right hearing my head on earth, and I.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Thought, that's awesome, this has happened. But that was like
two years ago. And then no movie, no movie. I thought,
oh no, come on what And now here we are,
two weeks from today, the Unbreakable Boy will be in theaters,
and the author the Father, Scott Lorette, is back here
(01:25):
on news radio eleven ten. Kfab who will be played
in this movie by Shazam Slash Kurt Warner. Zach Leviy
is the actor playing You've got congratulations on all this success.
It's been a long time coming. We're two weeks away.
How you feeling.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Thank you very much and thanks for having me on
as well. It's it's really just the last week ten
days or so. It is kind of kind of hit
me and everybody involved in the whole process, because I
do I'm grateful, and I do realize what it means
to not only make a book, but make a movie,
but also make a movie that it's actually going to
be on a screen, because there are countless that never
(02:06):
see the light of day. So it's very rare and
it doesn't go un notice. I totally get that.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well. This movie is made by John Gunn. He is
the one who's the director of writers, director, writer director,
and he is the one who directed Zachary Levy, an
American Underdog, The Kurt Warner Story. So I don't did
you see that movie? I did so good? Yeah, points
(02:36):
on to see that it was so so good.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, and I think also John, he does a lot
for Kingdom Story Company. Kingdom Story Company is a production
company that did I still believe I can only imagine
Jesus Revolution and for King and Country, most recently their film,
which did so well.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So if Zach Levy is going to play Kurt Warner,
NFL quarterback, Hall of Famer, super Bowl champion with two
different teams, you know he has some pretty good idea.
Who Kurt Warner is? Who the heck is Scott Lorett?
How does he end up talking with you, going all right,
I'm gonna play you. And he looks at Kurt Warner
and goes, all right, here's a handsome athlete. I've also
(03:16):
played Shazam in the movies. And he looks at you
and says, all right, well, I've got got my work
cut out for me. You're not an NFL Hall of Famer,
but we're a spitting image. That's army.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
He has perfect teeth, perfect hair. He's six ' five
t twenty five and I'm about a foot shorter than that.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
But know what happened was he was in on another
project at Lionsgate Studios in Santa Monica and someone handed
him the script. That's that's all that happened. The next
morning he called and said, this is my role. He
didn't audition, there were no auditions. He just got it
and we're off to the races. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, obviously he's he's the biggest name associated with this movie,
along with Patricia Heaton, who I just adored from Everybody
Loves Raymond and the Middle. But the star of the
film is this young man who plays your son. Tell
me about the Unbreakable Boy, Jacob leval Is. I don't
(04:16):
know whose performance was most special and best, but the
way that he portrayed Austin was incredible. I actually had
the opportunity to speak with Alexander Payne and he read
my book and he said, initially, he said, your movie
will never make it unless you cast Austin first, and
(04:40):
cast im properly, and quite frankly. The first time we
went on set, we thought Jacob was autistic.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
He's not. But he spent the better part of six
months talking with Austin, zooming with Austin, facetiming with Austin,
and he just he nailed it. And as for the
Unbreakable Boy, I've said that now many many times, but
I'm going to leave it up to you, you know,
the viewer, the reader, to determine who is the unbreakable
(05:07):
boy or what is the unbreakable boy? Is it really
a person, because everybody assumes it's Austin and the thing
that isn't as readily I think discerned. Is it? It's
my life story. I wrote a memoir, so it is
my life story. But Austin just happens to be this
incredible catalyst, incredible catalyst for the entire story. Well, the
(05:29):
phrasing of the unbreakable Boy has to do not just
with someone whose spirit is unbreakable, be that you, be
that him, but also a rare condition that your son
Austin has tell me about.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
That.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
It's called osteogenesis imperfecta or OI for short. And my
wife has it, her mother had it, one or two
sisters had it, and it's just they break bones really easy.
I think the only bone Austin hasn't broken, major bone
is his femur, including his back twice. His skull is sternum.
He's broken his cocksick twice. Tail crazy, Yeah, it's crazy.
(06:08):
Fingers toes Tobius fibulous, humorous, his elbows, you name it,
and uh I I can't help but but just laugh
at this thinking but it's it's it's the least funny
thing in the world.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I mean, this is this is yours. So this started
happening he was a baby.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, he's born with a couple of broken ribs and
we never knew it. We just thought he was the
most colicy kid. He would not stop crying. It was crazy.
And then Logan came along and he was he was
just piece of cake.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, yeah, if you're not coming out with broken ribs
and every time you move, you you stand the h
and hug him and yeah, how did you find out
that he had this uh this brittle bone disorder. Well,
we we knew because it's a it's inherited, so you
can do a genetic test and we did end up
(06:57):
doing that and it was confirmed and on one of
those scans, on one of those body scans, we also
confirmed that he had two lesions on ribs and the
doctor's like, you know, it looks like he was born
with those because those are really old, you know, and
he wasn't even a year old. So talking here with
Scott Lorette, author of The Unbreakable Boy, played by actor
(07:18):
Zach Levi in the forthcoming film The Unbreakable Boy, released
in theaters here in just a couple of weeks. But
we've got a hometown celebration at Marcus Twin Creek Cinema
and Bellevue coming up on Wednesday, this coming Wednesday of
a special red carpet event featuring and Zach Levi is
(07:40):
going to be here for this film, and you're going
to be out there, and well, I don't know, can
people buy tickets for this? Is this an invite only
situation on Wednesday at Marcus Theater's Twin Creek.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Well, it's an invitation to anybody. We just sold out
the second screen, the third one open. It's Dream the
Dream Loungers Theater at Marcus Theaters. Austin works there, and
my movie producing partner Peter Patchnelli, more well known as
Carlisle Cullen, doctor Colin from Twilight and Nurse Jackie and
so many others. He'll be there as well, as well
(08:16):
as folks from Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company. But just
go to the Marcus website or app and look for
the Twin Creek location and go down right now there's
seven fifteen, seven thirty seven forty five. What they get
is they get an opportunity to get a book, to
a signed book, but they'll get some swag, whatever swag's available,
a meet and greet with photo opportunity with the stars
(08:38):
the film, of course, and they'll be food and drink.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Well, I appreciate you coming in here and hanging out
with me. I've got a lot more questions for you,
not just from the standpoint of your life story, but
how that life story becomes a book, and then the
situation that lends itself to this book being a movie
that was supposed to come out years ago, and this
movie was made several years ago, and now here we
(09:02):
are finally doing it. We'll talk more with Scott Lorette next,
Scott Boyes News Radio eleven kfab the author, father of
The Unbreakable Boy. Here in the studio. This is gone
from real life to a real book to a real
movie that is finally coming out here two weeks from
(09:23):
to day in wide release and the hometown premiere because
this family is from nearby, They're from Red Oak, and
it's going to be at Marcus Twin Creek Cinema in Bellevue,
A Marcus Theater coming up this Wednesday with a few
screenings in the star of the film, Zachary Levi aka
Kurt Warner, Akazam aka Shazam two aka Chuck. Yeah, Chuck,
(09:50):
that's right, the TV show Chuck. He was on that too,
so I never saw that. But now he's he's got
a bigger role. Now he's playing our guest in the studio,
Scott Lorette. And so he's gone from Chuck to Shazam
to Kurt Warner to you, and I just wild. I
think your story is very Kurt Warner like, not in
(10:12):
terms of being a Hall of Fame football quarterback with
two Super Bowl rings, but in terms of having this
life with this son who is not only we talked
about biddle bone disease, but also autistic. And so you're
a father, You've got this is one of your kids,
and so you've got this life and all of these issues,
(10:35):
you decide to write a book about it. And this
book is now a major motion picture that's finally coming
out after it looked like for a while we might
never see it. So let's start here at the beginning.
Of the idea for writing this book. When did you
decide I got to write something about this.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
It's probably going on twelve fourteen, maybe fifteen years. I
just started writing. I just started writing little notes to myself,
little bullet points. I've still got the original three by
five spiral notebook on my desk, and it was just
thrown self therapy, introspection and I was in a really,
really bad place and it really helped. And then there
(11:15):
was a time where Austin broke a bone, he got
a cast off. We got home, he tripped and broke
his leg and my oldest brother said, you writing this down,
this and that, and I just thought, we're crazy, you know,
we're just we're just if what's the saying. If you
weren't crazy, you being saying. But I thought we need
to make a TV show. And that's how it started
and percolated, and I started writing more, and I blogged
and this and that, and then I just did had
(11:36):
you had.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
You written much before your background?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
No? I mean I think I'm creative and I read
voracious graciously, but never writing though, And I just I
ended up writing about one hundred vignettes. That's the word.
I think fancy word, and we had ended up in
the end turned that into a chronological story of about
half of those, and that's kind of where it came from.
(12:01):
And then I knew I wasn't done because I wanted
to make a TV show, because I thought people could
relate to our brokenness in our dysunction. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I mean anyone who's either, you know. I mean if
most people have some semblance of family in their lives,
whether growing up in it, being as we are fathers
of kids. I've got two teenagers myself and your heart.
I mean, so much of your life is really tied
into what's going on with them. How are they doing.
(12:34):
If they're in a good mood, I tend to be
in a good mood. If they're down, then I can
tend to be down here. I can't imagine, though, seeing
my kid break a bone, come home from the hospital
with a cast on, come in the house, fall down
and break another bone, and you're right back to the hospital.
And this is part of your regular daily life. With
(12:54):
this situation, I can't imagine how you dealt with it.
How did you deal with it? How did Austin deal
with it? Is the one that was breaking all these bones.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, he has hard issues as well, and he's had
some heart of course, but the heart and the bones
are really in the grand scheme of things, not that
big a deal. Really, Austin's autism is part of who
he is, and in terms of the break, broken bone,
getting a cast, on, getting another break, he'll be the
first one when we are home to laugh and tell
(13:25):
us to get over it. And it got to the point,
I don't remember what year it was, where Austin would
break something, or even Teresa would break a bone and
we'd be like, whose turn is it? And I'm like,
I mean a sandwich? Can you take him to the er?
You know, it just got to that point because I'm like, oh,
he broke something, he knows he broke something. He's not crying.
Apparently folks with oh I have a higher tolerance for pain.
(13:49):
I don't know. But the thing that we'd have to
The thing that's crazy though, is that Austin and Teresa
both complain about bone pain and they just I could
never experience what they're going through. But Austin has micro
fractures in his lower legs. He just lives with him
every day, so pain since he was a baby.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
This is just the normal for him, correct for your family,
and you're treating it like, oh, the kids got the
sniffles again, Someone get the tile on all. Like, oh,
the kid, you know, broke all these bones. Someone you
take him to get them sad or you know, casts
put on or whatever. Yeah, I couldn't. I couldn't even imagine.
I mean, this is only part of the story of
(14:30):
the Unbreakable Boy. So, as we mentioned here, you're writing
all these pieces. At some point you decide to put
them together, and then there's a book that comes out, right,
And we talked about that how long ago, ten years ago,
because you're talking about children. You know, when I first
met you and came in here, our kids were just
teenagers and now they're thirty and twenty eight. Your kids
(14:53):
are My kids are still teenager.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Right, And Logan, our youngest, he really kind of grew
up being the older brother to the older other and
he's yeah, he's one of the new finest police officers
in the in the city now, which we're so thrilled
awesome about.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
That is awesome. I can't believe that. Yeah, it's kids.
They do grow up. Yeah we don't, but the kids,
kids grow up, right, And so now Austin has gone
from this precocious youngster wearing a jester's hat. Still where
is it?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
It's still so he's he's thirty now, yeah, he's thirty.
He'll be thirty one this year, which just blows me away.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I mean, autism has a lot of different forms they
call that's why they call it a spectrum. Correct, So
it's uh. He he obviously knows everything has been happening
with him, and he knows that this is a movie
coming out because he works at a movie theater. Movies
are part of his life. Sure, movies and music are
part of his identity.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And I tell you what though, because so many times
I hear people or see people react and think it's
just sunshine and rainbows and I wrote a and I
made a movie and everything's fixed, and it's not. We're
just as broken and flawed as we ever were. And
I know some people in the autism community feel, you know,
we don't need to be fixed, you know, you treat
(16:12):
this like we're this damaged thing. Well, you know what.
I'm sorry, but it is a spectrum. And there are
times when Austin is at his lowest, where he will
tell me, I'll take that pill if they give it
to me.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So, you know, there's been such little negativity regarding this story.
It's so overwhelming me positive. But I'll just say leave
it at that that this is my experience, this is
my life. It's a memoir, and it's about my faith journey,
and it's about bringing my faith back into the entire story.
(16:45):
It's an underlying theme throughout the whole book and movie.
But we don't hit anybody over the head with it,
which I think is why it resonates with so many
kinds of people.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Well, I can see why it would be such a
good story to tell for the director and the actor
who were in the Kurt Warner story, which was incredible.
American Underdog was that that came out four years ago,
and you know the story Kurt Warner going from bagging
groceries to never giving up on his dream of wanting
to play professional football in the National Football League, finally
(17:16):
getting a chance to do it, barely making a team,
and then going on win a couple of Super Bowls,
a couple of different teams, Hall of Fame and not
just that, but also the journey of what he went
through personally with all of these setbacks his faith journey
as well. So when this writer, director, actor come together
and see this, it's largely the same story, very different situation.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah it. I only found this out when we were
in Los Angeles last week where Kevin Downs. Kevin is
the CEO of Kingdom Story Company. Kingdom does the films
that are family and in faith based for Lionsgate, which
is just a beautiful alliance. And I only found out
then that when they read the script in the book,
it was a no brainer. It punched all the buttons,
(18:02):
all the right buttons for Kingdom, so it was a
rather easy choice for them to make the film. You
mentioned something though about going back to it was supposed
to come out originally.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, and we were it was supposed to be a
whole one. Let's get to that here next, because you know,
we've got some of the story about here about Austin
the Unbreakable Boy, his father, Scott Lorette in the studio
with us. He compiled this into a memoir about his family,
life and faith in all of these issues. The fact
that the book was published and was had some measure
(18:33):
of success is impressive, almost statistically impossible. Then it ends
up being made into a movie. I want to talk
about that process. And as we were starting to say here,
the fact that this movie was supposed to come out
years ago, and for a while there some of us
wondered if we'd ever see it. So we'll continue to
(18:53):
talk about this with Scott Lorette. The Unbreakable Boy is
coming to theaters a wide release in two weeks from today.
Hometown release at the Marcus Theaters Twin Creek Cinema in
Bellevue this Wednesday. Go to Marcus Theaters Twin Creek Cinema
for tickets for any available showings for this incredible event
which will feature actor Zachary Levi in Omaha for this
(19:17):
event on Wednesday, Fox News Update and More with Scott
Lorette next Scott Voice News Radio eleven ten KFAB. We
talked about how actor Zachary Levi, who has played Chuck
on TV, Kurt Warner, and Shazam in Major Motion pictures,
is playing you and how did those conversations go with
(19:39):
you and Zach about you know, I would prefer you
play me this way, or what like weird Hollywood questions
of like how do you drink your coffee? I mean,
how much do we get it down there where he
was he was trying to become you in this movie.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I think a lot of it actually came through John
Gunn to John as is the writer director, right, and
he spent so much time with us over six months,
zoom calls, FaceTime, texts, emails, just getting to know every
single thing about us, and I think a lot of
that came through in the writing. And then we just
kind of Zach just kind of did his thing. You know.
(20:15):
We talked a few times before we met, just to
go over certain aspects, but it was just he's a
consummate professional and kind of let him go with it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Of course my looks right out of Central Casting. So yes,
there's no brainer to get Zach just because it's radio.
Zach's a very handsome man. I wouldn't say that anyone's
gonna mistake you for Kurt Warner or Shazam, but a
very handsome man. Now I'm guessing that as guys, you know,
you're like, all right, this Hollywood actor is going to
(20:48):
play you in a movie. I'm not going to be
going over there going Actually, I would prefer you do
this or do that. I wouldn't be too concerned. I'd
just be kind of blown away this was happening. How
did your wife Teresa deal with this? Because the actors
playing her as an Emmy winner from the White Lotus
huge series on HBO, and she've done a whole lot
more as well. Megan, I think fath is how you
(21:11):
pronounced her name. So was your wife like pretty keyed
up about Wait, someone's playing me in this movie. Well,
she became besties with Megan and Megan's and now beyond
White Lotus she's in the perfect couple with Nicole Kidman.
But no, we just let them kind of do their thing.
And I don't think Teresa told her to do much.
(21:35):
I think again, going back to John Gunn, that's where
most of it happened, where Teresa would tell John something
about me. It ended up John ended up knowing more
about me than I knew about myself. He corrected me
on certain things about I'm like, that's my life, and
he was right. He ended up being right on several things,
and like, that's weird. That's just so weird at some point,
I mean, this is your life. This story of the
(21:58):
Unbreakable Boy is as much about you. As it is
your son, which, if you're just joining us, Austin, when
this was written a young man autistic riddle, bone disease,
and you mentioned a heart issue as well. I mean,
it's just one thing after another here and all of
the issues related to all of this that goes into
the family. It's as much about him as it is you.
(22:22):
The Unbreakable Boy, which the whole name of the book
is The Unbreakable Boy. A father's fear, a son's courage,
and a story of unconditional love. And you talk to
us about this book years and years ago on this
radio show. It's it's amazing the book was made. It's
incredible now that it's made into a movie. And at
(22:44):
some point do you have to kind of let your
life and certain aspects of the book go because you
know your life is going to be boiled down to
about an hour and a half movie and they can't
do everything, and there's going to be, you know, a
few changes here in some Hollywood here and there. At
some point you got to be like, all right, I
(23:04):
just got to give it over to God and Hollywood
on this one. Yeah, it's and we and we did,
and we do and because faith like I said, is
an underlying thread through the whole film, but we just
let John kind of run with it. And I mean
if we wrote if he took the book and made
a movie out of it, it'd be a ten hour movie.
(23:24):
So there, it's overwhelmingly accurate. So it'd be a thirty
year movie, right right. So, I mean there's some minor things,
and John took some you know, creative license with certain things,
but I totally understand now, And I also understand when
you see a movie after reading a book, you're like,
well that was kind of different. Well, it happens and
you change things. I mean, there's events that happened in
(23:46):
different years that you combine into one event, but it
makes sense. Was there anything They're like, absolutely not, I'm
putting my foot down. You can't even make this movie
unless this or that. Did you did you get all, like,
you know, Hollywood about any of this things? Well, Diva,
Teresa ended up having more things that she was right
about and she went to John with But there was
(24:06):
one thing that John put his foot down with Lionsgate,
and that was my character Joe. And you can figure
out on your own who Joe is or what Joe means.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
There's a character in there in the movie, now, Joe, okay.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Right, And because there was talk initially, just a little rumbling,
of taking that character out of the film. And I'm
so thankful that John put his foot down and said no,
If you do that, that's a huge mistake. And after
you see it, you'll probably understand why, because he's this
moment of levity and faith and wonderment. It's a beautiful character.
(24:42):
I love the character. See.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I would also think that some of the issue is
because you know, this movie shows your son in school,
and not all the kids are going to be nice
to your son in school. We're talking about a kid
who's autistic, who's usually as a cast on or three
because of this brittle disorder. He's wearing a jester's hat.
You're gonna have some kids in there that are cruel.
(25:04):
They're not gonna be portrayed as good kids in this movie. Well,
these are kids in your community who are now like
guys in their early thirties going, hey, you just trash
me in this movie. I know this character is supposed
to be me. You know, how do you deal with that? Well,
Austin deals with it. I mean he well, no, I'm
not kidding.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Actually, he reaches out to the toughest cases to befriend
them and help them because he believes that everybody is redeemable.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
There's no one coming up going hey, the person at
the checkout counter in the supermark. That supermarket is based
on me, I need five hundred dollars or something.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
In fact, the Bully, the Bully character is based on
two people, primarily on Tyler. And just to let you know,
the Red Carpet is on the nineteenth in Manhattan and
Tyler's going to that. Okay, he's one of Logan and
Austin's oldest friends. The impact that Austin can have on
people is direct and immediate, and it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Well, we had mentioned that I was sitting there and
it was probably the Kurt Warner movie that I was
seen in twenty twenty one. I took my son to
see it. Loved the movie, and we're watching before that movie,
here's all the movie trailers, which is like eighty seven
minutes of movie trailers, it seems like, and then here's
(26:26):
The Unbreakable Boy. It's like, oh, this is the story
of Scott Lored and the Sun Austin and this great thing.
And so that was in twenty twenty one. Because this
film was supposed to be released in twenty twenty two.
I don't know if you've looked at a calendar, but
this movie is gonna be released two weeks from to
day this February twenty first, twenty twenty five. At some point,
did you think they're never going to release it? It's gone,
(26:47):
No one's going to see this.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I initially I was floored. Of course, you're weeks away
days and were weeks from it being in theaters. Posters
went up, initial teaser trailers started, and then we pulled it.
And it makes sense though, because we're at the end
of Omicron variant of COVID, and quite frankly, there were
(27:09):
some films right at that time, multiple different studios, that
did not do well. People were not back in the theaters.
They made an immediate decision and pulled it. Now. The
thing is, though, they could have dumped Unbreakable on Netflix
or any other streamer back then, but mister Fogelson said, no,
(27:31):
we believe in the theatrical value of the Unbreakable Boy.
We're waiting till the time is right and guess what.
Our world is such a broken place. We're in such
a bad tough time as a society right now. And
as my partner and my dear friend Peter told me
all along, God's got this, the world's got this, and
(27:51):
it's going to come out when we needed the most
in this world, and it's going to change people's lives.
I'm kind of starting to understand what he means by that,
because for a long long time I didn't you're.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Talking about red carpet events. You just had an event
in Oklahoma City last week. This film was largely made
in Oklahoma. We got the Hometown premiere coming up on
Wednesday at the Marcus Theater Twin Creek Cinema, and I
should bellvue not if I could interrupt, I should you
mention you're saying the hometown. Hometown is Reddock, the kids
(28:23):
grew there, but Austin works at the Marcus Theaters perfect,
So that's kind of the tie in connection with hometown
because he's a beloved member, as we love Marcus Theaters
as well, so and we consider our friends in him.
Whether it's glen Wood or Malvern or Red Oak, it's
the greater Omaha Council of Loffs Metro Area. We always
(28:46):
put our arms around red O great communities, So as
far as I'm concerned, whether it's Red Oak or Ashland
and beyond here, it's hometown. Is there is there? There's
a movie theater though in Red Oak, Like, hey.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Well, I'm actually headed there right now. Okay, I'm headed
down there right now, and we're trying to make something happen.
And if anybody from Lionsgate is listening to me right now,
because yeah, I know they've got about a thousand balls
in the air they're juggling, but we're trying to make
something happy happen in really well.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
It's a wide release two weeks from the day. The
local release will say, coming up on Wednesday evening. And
as Scott said, there are still a few seats available
for one of the right now three screenings and Zach
Levi is going to be in town for this event.
Last question for you, Scott, you at some point you
(29:40):
and your son Austin, who's gone from being this little
kid portrayed in this movie to now a grown man
in his thirties, still dealing with the stuff issues with
his heart, his bones, being on the Spectrum. At some point,
you guys sat down and watched this movie. What was
that like for both of you?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
He didn't. I've seen it about fifty times, and because
we every edit they did, I gotta see no sound
or no sound, no music, no sound effects, black and white,
what have you. But Austin just cares about promoting it,
and he's like dad, any royalties we make their mind
because I'm on the cover of the book. But but
(30:23):
I don't know he really you know, he just likes
talking to people and telling people about it, so he's
a huge cheerleader.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah, that is so cool. I'm so happy for your family.
We hadn't even mentioned that one of our favorite actresses,
Patricia Heaton, is also in this movie. Everybody Loves Raymond
the Middle. She nailed it. She played my mother. She's
your mom, and this is so good. Your mom is
Patricia Heaton. I know you're played by Kurt Warner Shazam
(30:50):
and your mom is Patricia Heaton.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
And my movie producing partner is a vampire.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
That's right. I can't believe that this is happening. I
am so happy for you, and I have to admit,
you know, following you on social media for these last
few years, you're like, all right, we got a date
for the movie. All right, well we're gonna pull the
Dave mood. Not coming out yet, heard it might be
coming out later this year. Well, not gonna be this year.
And there were times I was like, it's not gonna happen. Here,
(31:18):
we are both here, we are my man. Yeah, it's surreal. Congratulations,
Thank you very much, Scott, you're the best. Scott Lorette,
The Unbreakable Boy come into theaters in two weeks again.
The local movie premiere is coming up this Wednesday evening
at the Marcus Theater Twin Creek Cinema. That is Scott
Lorette of The Unbreakable Boy.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Scott Boys Mornings nine to eleven, Our News Radio eleven
ten KFAB
Scott Vordies. I can't remember how long it's been since
we talked with this guy from the thriving community of
Red Oak, Iowa, not far away here Omaha Council Bluff's
greater metropolitan area. But this guy, Scott M. Lorett, was
on the show here and said, I wrote a book.
(00:21):
I've got a really interesting kid, and we called the
book The Unbreakable Boy. A father's fear, a son's courage,
and the story of unconditional love. And Scott told me
about this kid and his family and the book. And
then a few years later he's like, they want to
make a movie out of it, Like, yeah, that, we'll
(00:43):
see how that goes. And then a few years later,
Scott's like that they made a movie. The movie's coming out,
And I was actually sitting there seeing something and one
of the trailers was for this movie, The Unbreakable Boy.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
First to Austin, think his brains from Nope, my brain
is right hearing my head on earth, and I.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Thought, that's awesome, this has happened. But that was like
two years ago. And then no movie, no movie. I thought,
oh no, come on what And now here we are,
two weeks from today, the Unbreakable Boy will be in theaters,
and the author the Father, Scott Lorette, is back here
(01:25):
on news radio eleven ten. Kfab who will be played
in this movie by Shazam Slash Kurt Warner. Zach Leviy
is the actor playing You've got congratulations on all this success.
It's been a long time coming. We're two weeks away.
How you feeling.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Thank you very much and thanks for having me on
as well. It's it's really just the last week ten
days or so. It is kind of kind of hit
me and everybody involved in the whole process, because I
do I'm grateful, and I do realize what it means
to not only make a book, but make a movie,
but also make a movie that it's actually going to
be on a screen, because there are countless that never
(02:06):
see the light of day. So it's very rare and
it doesn't go un notice. I totally get that.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well. This movie is made by John Gunn. He is
the one who's the director of writers, director, writer director,
and he is the one who directed Zachary Levy, an
American Underdog, The Kurt Warner Story. So I don't did
you see that movie? I did so good? Yeah, points
(02:36):
on to see that it was so so good.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, and I think also John, he does a lot
for Kingdom Story Company. Kingdom Story Company is a production
company that did I still believe I can only imagine
Jesus Revolution and for King and Country, most recently their film,
which did so well.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So if Zach Levy is going to play Kurt Warner,
NFL quarterback, Hall of Famer, super Bowl champion with two
different teams, you know he has some pretty good idea.
Who Kurt Warner is? Who the heck is Scott Lorett?
How does he end up talking with you, going all right,
I'm gonna play you. And he looks at Kurt Warner
and goes, all right, here's a handsome athlete. I've also
(03:16):
played Shazam in the movies. And he looks at you
and says, all right, well, I've got got my work
cut out for me. You're not an NFL Hall of Famer,
but we're a spitting image. That's army.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
He has perfect teeth, perfect hair. He's six ' five
t twenty five and I'm about a foot shorter than that.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
But know what happened was he was in on another
project at Lionsgate Studios in Santa Monica and someone handed
him the script. That's that's all that happened. The next
morning he called and said, this is my role. He
didn't audition, there were no auditions. He just got it
and we're off to the races. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, obviously he's he's the biggest name associated with this movie,
along with Patricia Heaton, who I just adored from Everybody
Loves Raymond and the Middle. But the star of the
film is this young man who plays your son. Tell
me about the Unbreakable Boy, Jacob leval Is. I don't
(04:16):
know whose performance was most special and best, but the
way that he portrayed Austin was incredible. I actually had
the opportunity to speak with Alexander Payne and he read
my book and he said, initially, he said, your movie
will never make it unless you cast Austin first, and
(04:40):
cast im properly, and quite frankly. The first time we
went on set, we thought Jacob was autistic.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
He's not. But he spent the better part of six
months talking with Austin, zooming with Austin, facetiming with Austin,
and he just he nailed it. And as for the
Unbreakable Boy, I've said that now many many times, but
I'm going to leave it up to you, you know,
the viewer, the reader, to determine who is the unbreakable
(05:07):
boy or what is the unbreakable boy? Is it really
a person, because everybody assumes it's Austin and the thing
that isn't as readily I think discerned. Is it? It's
my life story. I wrote a memoir, so it is
my life story. But Austin just happens to be this
incredible catalyst, incredible catalyst for the entire story. Well, the
(05:29):
phrasing of the unbreakable Boy has to do not just
with someone whose spirit is unbreakable, be that you, be
that him, but also a rare condition that your son
Austin has tell me about.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
That.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
It's called osteogenesis imperfecta or OI for short. And my
wife has it, her mother had it, one or two
sisters had it, and it's just they break bones really easy.
I think the only bone Austin hasn't broken, major bone
is his femur, including his back twice. His skull is sternum.
He's broken his cocksick twice. Tail crazy, Yeah, it's crazy.
(06:08):
Fingers toes Tobius fibulous, humorous, his elbows, you name it,
and uh I I can't help but but just laugh
at this thinking but it's it's it's the least funny
thing in the world.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I mean, this is this is yours. So this started
happening he was a baby.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, he's born with a couple of broken ribs and
we never knew it. We just thought he was the
most colicy kid. He would not stop crying. It was crazy.
And then Logan came along and he was he was
just piece of cake.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, yeah, if you're not coming out with broken ribs
and every time you move, you you stand the h
and hug him and yeah, how did you find out
that he had this uh this brittle bone disorder. Well,
we we knew because it's a it's inherited, so you
can do a genetic test and we did end up
(06:57):
doing that and it was confirmed and on one of
those scans, on one of those body scans, we also
confirmed that he had two lesions on ribs and the
doctor's like, you know, it looks like he was born
with those because those are really old, you know, and
he wasn't even a year old. So talking here with
Scott Lorette, author of The Unbreakable Boy, played by actor
(07:18):
Zach Levi in the forthcoming film The Unbreakable Boy, released
in theaters here in just a couple of weeks. But
we've got a hometown celebration at Marcus Twin Creek Cinema
and Bellevue coming up on Wednesday, this coming Wednesday of
a special red carpet event featuring and Zach Levi is
(07:40):
going to be here for this film, and you're going
to be out there, and well, I don't know, can
people buy tickets for this? Is this an invite only
situation on Wednesday at Marcus Theater's Twin Creek.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Well, it's an invitation to anybody. We just sold out
the second screen, the third one open. It's Dream the
Dream Loungers Theater at Marcus Theaters. Austin works there, and
my movie producing partner Peter Patchnelli, more well known as
Carlisle Cullen, doctor Colin from Twilight and Nurse Jackie and
so many others. He'll be there as well, as well
(08:16):
as folks from Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company. But just
go to the Marcus website or app and look for
the Twin Creek location and go down right now there's
seven fifteen, seven thirty seven forty five. What they get
is they get an opportunity to get a book, to
a signed book, but they'll get some swag, whatever swag's available,
a meet and greet with photo opportunity with the stars
(08:38):
the film, of course, and they'll be food and drink.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Well, I appreciate you coming in here and hanging out
with me. I've got a lot more questions for you,
not just from the standpoint of your life story, but
how that life story becomes a book, and then the
situation that lends itself to this book being a movie
that was supposed to come out years ago, and this
movie was made several years ago, and now here we
(09:02):
are finally doing it. We'll talk more with Scott Lorette next,
Scott Boyes News Radio eleven kfab the author, father of
The Unbreakable Boy. Here in the studio. This is gone
from real life to a real book to a real
movie that is finally coming out here two weeks from
(09:23):
to day in wide release and the hometown premiere because
this family is from nearby, They're from Red Oak, and
it's going to be at Marcus Twin Creek Cinema in Bellevue,
A Marcus Theater coming up this Wednesday with a few
screenings in the star of the film, Zachary Levi aka
Kurt Warner, Akazam aka Shazam two aka Chuck. Yeah, Chuck,
(09:50):
that's right, the TV show Chuck. He was on that too,
so I never saw that. But now he's he's got
a bigger role. Now he's playing our guest in the studio,
Scott Lorette. And so he's gone from Chuck to Shazam
to Kurt Warner to you, and I just wild. I
think your story is very Kurt Warner like, not in
(10:12):
terms of being a Hall of Fame football quarterback with
two Super Bowl rings, but in terms of having this
life with this son who is not only we talked
about biddle bone disease, but also autistic. And so you're
a father, You've got this is one of your kids,
and so you've got this life and all of these issues,
(10:35):
you decide to write a book about it. And this
book is now a major motion picture that's finally coming
out after it looked like for a while we might
never see it. So let's start here at the beginning.
Of the idea for writing this book. When did you
decide I got to write something about this.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
It's probably going on twelve fourteen, maybe fifteen years. I
just started writing. I just started writing little notes to myself,
little bullet points. I've still got the original three by
five spiral notebook on my desk, and it was just
thrown self therapy, introspection and I was in a really,
really bad place and it really helped. And then there
(11:15):
was a time where Austin broke a bone, he got
a cast off. We got home, he tripped and broke
his leg and my oldest brother said, you writing this down,
this and that, and I just thought, we're crazy, you know,
we're just we're just if what's the saying. If you
weren't crazy, you being saying. But I thought we need
to make a TV show. And that's how it started
and percolated, and I started writing more, and I blogged
and this and that, and then I just did had
(11:36):
you had.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
You written much before your background?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
No? I mean I think I'm creative and I read
voracious graciously, but never writing though, And I just I
ended up writing about one hundred vignettes. That's the word.
I think fancy word, and we had ended up in
the end turned that into a chronological story of about
half of those, and that's kind of where it came from.
(12:01):
And then I knew I wasn't done because I wanted
to make a TV show, because I thought people could
relate to our brokenness in our dysunction. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I mean anyone who's either, you know. I mean if
most people have some semblance of family in their lives,
whether growing up in it, being as we are fathers
of kids. I've got two teenagers myself and your heart.
I mean, so much of your life is really tied
into what's going on with them. How are they doing.
(12:34):
If they're in a good mood, I tend to be
in a good mood. If they're down, then I can
tend to be down here. I can't imagine, though, seeing
my kid break a bone, come home from the hospital
with a cast on, come in the house, fall down
and break another bone, and you're right back to the hospital.
And this is part of your regular daily life. With
(12:54):
this situation, I can't imagine how you dealt with it.
How did you deal with it? How did Austin deal
with it? Is the one that was breaking all these bones.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, he has hard issues as well, and he's had
some heart of course, but the heart and the bones
are really in the grand scheme of things, not that
big a deal. Really, Austin's autism is part of who
he is, and in terms of the break, broken bone,
getting a cast, on, getting another break, he'll be the
first one when we are home to laugh and tell
(13:25):
us to get over it. And it got to the point,
I don't remember what year it was, where Austin would
break something, or even Teresa would break a bone and
we'd be like, whose turn is it? And I'm like,
I mean a sandwich? Can you take him to the er?
You know, it just got to that point because I'm like, oh,
he broke something, he knows he broke something. He's not crying.
Apparently folks with oh I have a higher tolerance for pain.
(13:49):
I don't know. But the thing that we'd have to
The thing that's crazy though, is that Austin and Teresa
both complain about bone pain and they just I could
never experience what they're going through. But Austin has micro
fractures in his lower legs. He just lives with him
every day, so pain since he was a baby.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
This is just the normal for him, correct for your family,
and you're treating it like, oh, the kids got the
sniffles again, Someone get the tile on all. Like, oh,
the kid, you know, broke all these bones. Someone you
take him to get them sad or you know, casts
put on or whatever. Yeah, I couldn't. I couldn't even imagine.
I mean, this is only part of the story of
(14:30):
the Unbreakable Boy. So, as we mentioned here, you're writing
all these pieces. At some point you decide to put
them together, and then there's a book that comes out, right,
And we talked about that how long ago, ten years ago,
because you're talking about children. You know, when I first
met you and came in here, our kids were just
teenagers and now they're thirty and twenty eight. Your kids
(14:53):
are My kids are still teenager.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Right, And Logan, our youngest, he really kind of grew
up being the older brother to the older other and
he's yeah, he's one of the new finest police officers
in the in the city now, which we're so thrilled
awesome about.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
That is awesome. I can't believe that. Yeah, it's kids.
They do grow up. Yeah we don't, but the kids,
kids grow up, right, And so now Austin has gone
from this precocious youngster wearing a jester's hat. Still where
is it?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
It's still so he's he's thirty now, yeah, he's thirty.
He'll be thirty one this year, which just blows me away.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I mean, autism has a lot of different forms they
call that's why they call it a spectrum. Correct, So
it's uh. He he obviously knows everything has been happening
with him, and he knows that this is a movie
coming out because he works at a movie theater. Movies
are part of his life. Sure, movies and music are
part of his identity.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And I tell you what though, because so many times
I hear people or see people react and think it's
just sunshine and rainbows and I wrote a and I
made a movie and everything's fixed, and it's not. We're
just as broken and flawed as we ever were. And
I know some people in the autism community feel, you know,
we don't need to be fixed, you know, you treat
(16:12):
this like we're this damaged thing. Well, you know what.
I'm sorry, but it is a spectrum. And there are
times when Austin is at his lowest, where he will
tell me, I'll take that pill if they give it
to me.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So, you know, there's been such little negativity regarding this story.
It's so overwhelming me positive. But I'll just say leave
it at that that this is my experience, this is
my life. It's a memoir, and it's about my faith journey,
and it's about bringing my faith back into the entire story.
(16:45):
It's an underlying theme throughout the whole book and movie.
But we don't hit anybody over the head with it,
which I think is why it resonates with so many
kinds of people.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Well, I can see why it would be such a
good story to tell for the director and the actor
who were in the Kurt Warner story, which was incredible.
American Underdog was that that came out four years ago,
and you know the story Kurt Warner going from bagging
groceries to never giving up on his dream of wanting
to play professional football in the National Football League, finally
(17:16):
getting a chance to do it, barely making a team,
and then going on win a couple of Super Bowls,
a couple of different teams, Hall of Fame and not
just that, but also the journey of what he went
through personally with all of these setbacks his faith journey
as well. So when this writer, director, actor come together
and see this, it's largely the same story, very different situation.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah it. I only found this out when we were
in Los Angeles last week where Kevin Downs. Kevin is
the CEO of Kingdom Story Company. Kingdom does the films
that are family and in faith based for Lionsgate, which
is just a beautiful alliance. And I only found out
then that when they read the script in the book,
it was a no brainer. It punched all the buttons,
(18:02):
all the right buttons for Kingdom, so it was a
rather easy choice for them to make the film. You
mentioned something though about going back to it was supposed
to come out originally.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, and we were it was supposed to be a
whole one. Let's get to that here next, because you know,
we've got some of the story about here about Austin
the Unbreakable Boy, his father, Scott Lorette in the studio
with us. He compiled this into a memoir about his family,
life and faith in all of these issues. The fact
that the book was published and was had some measure
(18:33):
of success is impressive, almost statistically impossible. Then it ends
up being made into a movie. I want to talk
about that process. And as we were starting to say here,
the fact that this movie was supposed to come out
years ago, and for a while there some of us
wondered if we'd ever see it. So we'll continue to
(18:53):
talk about this with Scott Lorette. The Unbreakable Boy is
coming to theaters a wide release in two weeks from today.
Hometown release at the Marcus Theaters Twin Creek Cinema in
Bellevue this Wednesday. Go to Marcus Theaters Twin Creek Cinema
for tickets for any available showings for this incredible event
which will feature actor Zachary Levi in Omaha for this
(19:17):
event on Wednesday, Fox News Update and More with Scott
Lorette next Scott Voice News Radio eleven ten KFAB. We
talked about how actor Zachary Levi, who has played Chuck
on TV, Kurt Warner, and Shazam in Major Motion pictures,
is playing you and how did those conversations go with
(19:39):
you and Zach about you know, I would prefer you
play me this way, or what like weird Hollywood questions
of like how do you drink your coffee? I mean,
how much do we get it down there where he
was he was trying to become you in this movie.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I think a lot of it actually came through John
Gunn to John as is the writer director, right, and
he spent so much time with us over six months,
zoom calls, FaceTime, texts, emails, just getting to know every
single thing about us, and I think a lot of
that came through in the writing. And then we just
kind of Zach just kind of did his thing. You know.
(20:15):
We talked a few times before we met, just to
go over certain aspects, but it was just he's a
consummate professional and kind of let him go with it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Of course my looks right out of Central Casting. So yes,
there's no brainer to get Zach just because it's radio.
Zach's a very handsome man. I wouldn't say that anyone's
gonna mistake you for Kurt Warner or Shazam, but a
very handsome man. Now I'm guessing that as guys, you know,
you're like, all right, this Hollywood actor is going to
(20:48):
play you in a movie. I'm not going to be
going over there going Actually, I would prefer you do
this or do that. I wouldn't be too concerned. I'd
just be kind of blown away this was happening. How
did your wife Teresa deal with this? Because the actors
playing her as an Emmy winner from the White Lotus
huge series on HBO, and she've done a whole lot
more as well. Megan, I think fath is how you
(21:11):
pronounced her name. So was your wife like pretty keyed
up about Wait, someone's playing me in this movie. Well,
she became besties with Megan and Megan's and now beyond
White Lotus she's in the perfect couple with Nicole Kidman.
But no, we just let them kind of do their thing.
And I don't think Teresa told her to do much.
(21:35):
I think again, going back to John Gunn, that's where
most of it happened, where Teresa would tell John something
about me. It ended up John ended up knowing more
about me than I knew about myself. He corrected me
on certain things about I'm like, that's my life, and
he was right. He ended up being right on several things,
and like, that's weird. That's just so weird at some point,
I mean, this is your life. This story of the
(21:58):
Unbreakable Boy is as much about you. As it is
your son, which, if you're just joining us, Austin, when
this was written a young man autistic riddle, bone disease,
and you mentioned a heart issue as well. I mean,
it's just one thing after another here and all of
the issues related to all of this that goes into
the family. It's as much about him as it is you.
(22:22):
The Unbreakable Boy, which the whole name of the book
is The Unbreakable Boy. A father's fear, a son's courage,
and a story of unconditional love. And you talk to
us about this book years and years ago on this
radio show. It's it's amazing the book was made. It's
incredible now that it's made into a movie. And at
(22:44):
some point do you have to kind of let your
life and certain aspects of the book go because you
know your life is going to be boiled down to
about an hour and a half movie and they can't
do everything, and there's going to be, you know, a
few changes here in some Hollywood here and there. At
some point you got to be like, all right, I
(23:04):
just got to give it over to God and Hollywood
on this one. Yeah, it's and we and we did,
and we do and because faith like I said, is
an underlying thread through the whole film, but we just
let John kind of run with it. And I mean
if we wrote if he took the book and made
a movie out of it, it'd be a ten hour movie.
(23:24):
So there, it's overwhelmingly accurate. So it'd be a thirty
year movie, right right. So, I mean there's some minor things,
and John took some you know, creative license with certain things,
but I totally understand now, And I also understand when
you see a movie after reading a book, you're like,
well that was kind of different. Well, it happens and
you change things. I mean, there's events that happened in
(23:46):
different years that you combine into one event, but it
makes sense. Was there anything They're like, absolutely not, I'm
putting my foot down. You can't even make this movie
unless this or that. Did you did you get all, like,
you know, Hollywood about any of this things? Well, Diva,
Teresa ended up having more things that she was right
about and she went to John with But there was
(24:06):
one thing that John put his foot down with Lionsgate,
and that was my character Joe. And you can figure
out on your own who Joe is or what Joe means.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
There's a character in there in the movie, now, Joe, okay.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Right, And because there was talk initially, just a little rumbling,
of taking that character out of the film. And I'm
so thankful that John put his foot down and said no,
If you do that, that's a huge mistake. And after
you see it, you'll probably understand why, because he's this
moment of levity and faith and wonderment. It's a beautiful character.
(24:42):
I love the character. See.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I would also think that some of the issue is
because you know, this movie shows your son in school,
and not all the kids are going to be nice
to your son in school. We're talking about a kid
who's autistic, who's usually as a cast on or three
because of this brittle disorder. He's wearing a jester's hat.
You're gonna have some kids in there that are cruel.
(25:04):
They're not gonna be portrayed as good kids in this movie. Well,
these are kids in your community who are now like
guys in their early thirties going, hey, you just trash
me in this movie. I know this character is supposed
to be me. You know, how do you deal with that? Well,
Austin deals with it. I mean he well, no, I'm
not kidding.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Actually, he reaches out to the toughest cases to befriend
them and help them because he believes that everybody is redeemable.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
There's no one coming up going hey, the person at
the checkout counter in the supermark. That supermarket is based
on me, I need five hundred dollars or something.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
In fact, the Bully, the Bully character is based on
two people, primarily on Tyler. And just to let you know,
the Red Carpet is on the nineteenth in Manhattan and
Tyler's going to that. Okay, he's one of Logan and
Austin's oldest friends. The impact that Austin can have on
people is direct and immediate, and it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Well, we had mentioned that I was sitting there and
it was probably the Kurt Warner movie that I was
seen in twenty twenty one. I took my son to
see it. Loved the movie, and we're watching before that movie,
here's all the movie trailers, which is like eighty seven
minutes of movie trailers, it seems like, and then here's
(26:26):
The Unbreakable Boy. It's like, oh, this is the story
of Scott Lored and the Sun Austin and this great thing.
And so that was in twenty twenty one. Because this
film was supposed to be released in twenty twenty two.
I don't know if you've looked at a calendar, but
this movie is gonna be released two weeks from to
day this February twenty first, twenty twenty five. At some point,
did you think they're never going to release it? It's gone,
(26:47):
No one's going to see this.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I initially I was floored. Of course, you're weeks away
days and were weeks from it being in theaters. Posters
went up, initial teaser trailers started, and then we pulled it.
And it makes sense though, because we're at the end
of Omicron variant of COVID, and quite frankly, there were
(27:09):
some films right at that time, multiple different studios, that
did not do well. People were not back in the theaters.
They made an immediate decision and pulled it. Now. The
thing is, though, they could have dumped Unbreakable on Netflix
or any other streamer back then, but mister Fogelson said, no,
(27:31):
we believe in the theatrical value of the Unbreakable Boy.
We're waiting till the time is right and guess what.
Our world is such a broken place. We're in such
a bad tough time as a society right now. And
as my partner and my dear friend Peter told me
all along, God's got this, the world's got this, and
(27:51):
it's going to come out when we needed the most
in this world, and it's going to change people's lives.
I'm kind of starting to understand what he means by that,
because for a long long time I didn't you're.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Talking about red carpet events. You just had an event
in Oklahoma City last week. This film was largely made
in Oklahoma. We got the Hometown premiere coming up on
Wednesday at the Marcus Theater Twin Creek Cinema, and I
should bellvue not if I could interrupt, I should you
mention you're saying the hometown. Hometown is Reddock, the kids
(28:23):
grew there, but Austin works at the Marcus Theaters perfect,
So that's kind of the tie in connection with hometown
because he's a beloved member, as we love Marcus Theaters
as well, so and we consider our friends in him.
Whether it's glen Wood or Malvern or Red Oak, it's
the greater Omaha Council of Loffs Metro Area. We always
(28:46):
put our arms around red O great communities, So as
far as I'm concerned, whether it's Red Oak or Ashland
and beyond here, it's hometown. Is there is there? There's
a movie theater though in Red Oak, Like, hey.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Well, I'm actually headed there right now. Okay, I'm headed
down there right now, and we're trying to make something happen.
And if anybody from Lionsgate is listening to me right now,
because yeah, I know they've got about a thousand balls
in the air they're juggling, but we're trying to make
something happy happen in really well.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
It's a wide release two weeks from the day. The
local release will say, coming up on Wednesday evening. And
as Scott said, there are still a few seats available
for one of the right now three screenings and Zach
Levi is going to be in town for this event.
Last question for you, Scott, you at some point you
(29:40):
and your son Austin, who's gone from being this little
kid portrayed in this movie to now a grown man
in his thirties, still dealing with the stuff issues with
his heart, his bones, being on the Spectrum. At some point,
you guys sat down and watched this movie. What was
that like for both of you?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
He didn't. I've seen it about fifty times, and because
we every edit they did, I gotta see no sound
or no sound, no music, no sound effects, black and white,
what have you. But Austin just cares about promoting it,
and he's like dad, any royalties we make their mind
because I'm on the cover of the book. But but
(30:23):
I don't know he really you know, he just likes
talking to people and telling people about it, so he's
a huge cheerleader.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah, that is so cool. I'm so happy for your family.
We hadn't even mentioned that one of our favorite actresses,
Patricia Heaton, is also in this movie. Everybody Loves Raymond
the Middle. She nailed it. She played my mother. She's
your mom, and this is so good. Your mom is
Patricia Heaton. I know you're played by Kurt Warner Shazam
(30:50):
and your mom is Patricia Heaton.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
And my movie producing partner is a vampire.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
That's right. I can't believe that this is happening. I
am so happy for you, and I have to admit,
you know, following you on social media for these last
few years, you're like, all right, we got a date
for the movie. All right, well we're gonna pull the
Dave mood. Not coming out yet, heard it might be
coming out later this year. Well, not gonna be this year.
And there were times I was like, it's not gonna happen. Here,
(31:18):
we are both here, we are my man. Yeah, it's surreal. Congratulations,
Thank you very much, Scott, you're the best. Scott Lorette,
The Unbreakable Boy come into theaters in two weeks again.
The local movie premiere is coming up this Wednesday evening
at the Marcus Theater Twin Creek Cinema. That is Scott
Lorette of The Unbreakable Boy.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Scott Boys Mornings nine to eleven, Our News Radio eleven
ten KFAB
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