Taglines: When you come back from a loss, beat the odds, and never say never, you find a champion.
Bethany was born to surf. A natural talent who took to the waves at a young age, she was leading an idyllic, sun-drenched, surfer girl’s life on the Kauai Coast, competing in national competitions with her best friend Alana, when everything changed in a heartbeat. On Halloween morning, Bethany was on a typical ocean outing when a 14-foot tiger shark came out of nowhere and seemed to shatter all her dreams.
SOUL SURFER reveals the moving aftermath of this headline-making story, as Bethany fights to recover and grapples with the future. Strengthened by the love of her parents, Tom (Dennis Quaid) and Cheri (Helen Hunt), she refuses to give in or give up, and begins a bold return to the water. Still, the questions keep hammering her: Why did this happen? Why did she have to lose everything? Will she ever feel the joy and power of riding the waves again? And if she can’t be a surfer, then who is she?
The devastating 2004 tsunami in the Pacific Ocean unexpectedly gives Bethany a new perspective. Traveling to Phuket, Thailand with her youth-group leader Sarah Hill (Carrie Underwood), she witnesses life beyond her own shoreline and discovers her greater purpose, she can make a difference in the lives of others. Filled with a new sense of hope and direction, she returns home with a renewed resolve to conquer her own limitations and set an encouraging example for people facing adversity.
At the National Championships, Bethany bravely faces off with her fiercest rival, Malia Birch (Sonya Balmores), and takes her astonishing one-armed surfing technique to the limit. But as the horn blows, and the suspenseful competition kicks off, Bethany is no longer thinking about the challenges of her body. Now, her surfing, her biggest dreams and her life have become about pushing her own physical limits to touch the souls of others.
About the Production
Soul Surfer /sohl serf-er/ – noun; 1. A term coined in the 1970s, used to describe a talented surfer who surfs for the sheer pleasure of it. Although they may still enter competitions, a Soul Surfer’s motives go beyond winning.
“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of.” — Bethany Hamilton
On October 31st, 2003, spirited Hawaiian teenager and rising young surfer Bethany Hamilton went into the ocean, and emerged forever changed – her life upended by an unimaginable event, yet her determination strengthened, her faith deepened and her compassion for others solidified as the driving force of an inspirational new life.
On that terrifying day, Bethany lost her left arm in a sudden, near-fatal shark attack that made headlines and broke hearts around the world. But just weeks later, Bethany would be back up on her board, in mere months she was crossing the globe to lend a hand to tsunami victims in Thailand, and in just over a year she would win the National Scholastic Surfing Championships in Hawaii, surfing with only one arm.
How did she do it? What fueled her rapid transformation from a devastated young girl to a courageous champion and heroine to many? Sean McNamara’s moving screen adaptation of Bethany’s best-selling book, Soul Surfer, reveals the grit, grace, and unsinkable belief in life that led Bethany and her family on a quest to transform what seemed like an overwhelming personal loss into an astonishing opportunity to make a difference for others.
McNamara, who is best known for directing the hit Disney series “That’s So Raven” as well as the girl-surfing TV series “Beyond The Break,” was awed by Bethany’s story from the first time he heard about it. He saw it not only as one of the all-time great athletic comeback stories, and not only as a portrait of girl power taken to the max, but as a chance to explore where bravery and motivation come from in the most challenging moments of our lives.
“Bethany’s story is so powerful,” comments McNamara. “Most people would have given up after what happened to her, but not only did she make an amazing return to surfing, she excelled at it, and has turned her life into an inspiration for people all around the world. She is someone you look at and think, ‘If she can do all the incredible things she’s done, I can set the world on fire, too.’”
After the shark attack, Bethany could easily have succumbed to fear and anger, but her reaction was the polar opposite. She came to believe that the loss of her arm would, she says, lead her “to something really beautiful.” Nothing would stand in the way of her belief that she could contribute to the world as much as ever, even more so now that she truly understood what it takes – emotionally, spiritually and physically – to move through loss and into the hopefulness of big dreams.
It was about six months after Bethany’s accident, just as she was blossoming into an international heroine with her gutsy return to surfing competition, when producer Douglas Schwartz, best known for creating the hit series “Baywatch,” first mentioned to Bethany that her story could make for a unique movie experience.
“I’ve been a writer and producer for 32 years and I’d never encountered a more inspirational story than Bethany’s,” comments Schwartz, who would go on to co-write the script with McNamara and two other “Baywatch” alumni, his wife Deborah Schwartz and co-creator Michael Berk.
Having just come out of a period of intense spiritual questioning, Bethany was intrigued by the idea in a way she might not have been before. She now saw a movie as a means to reach more people with a story she felt was important: the story of how the strength of her relationships – with family, with the friends who stood by her side and with God — gave her the optimism and resolve to turn what could have been an abrupt ending into a exhilarating, new beginning.
“It has been an incredible journey for me and now, I’m just so excited to share it,” Bethany says. “Having a movie made about me is something I would never have picked for myself but I think the filmmakers and actors have made an amazing film that I hope will encourage people to make the most of their own lives, no matter their circumstances.”
Soul Surfer
Directed by: Sean McNamara
Starring: AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt, Carrie Underwood, Kevin Sorbo, Craig T. Nelson, Jeremy Sumpter
Screenplay by: Michael Berk, Bethany Hamilton
Production Design by: Rusty Smith
Cinematography by: John R. Leonetti
Film Editing by: Jeff Canavan
Costume Design by: Kathe James
Set Decoration by: Julie Smith
Art Direction by: Rosario Provenza
Music by: Marco Beltrami
MPAA Rating: PG for an intense accident sequence and some thematic material.
Studio: Sony TriStar Pictures
Release Date: April 15, 2011
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