Steel City was originated by writer-director Brian Jun back in 2003 when Jun was in the Fox Searchlab program, while directing the short film Researching Raymond Burke staring actor John Heard (Home Alone, White Chicks). Basing his script on the small Midwestern town he grew up in and the people who inhabit it, Steel City is a stark, but uplifting, drama about the lives of two generations of a working-class family and the damage caused to them by abandonment.
After years developing the script, and with Heard attached to star as Carl Lee, the patriarch of his fictional family, Jun brought the project to Your Half Pictures in the spring of 2004.
Recognizing the talent, passion and wealth of resources possessed by Jun, producers Ryan Harper and Rusty Gray agreed to produce the film with Jun through Your Half Pictures, LLC. This begins the nearly nine months of pre-production as the film readies for a shoot starting in late November of the same year.
The most important component in bringing a script like Steel City to the screen is in its casting. Working with veteran casting director Emily Schweber (Tigerland, Secondhand Lions), Jun and company assembled an accomplished ensemble of both familiar faces and up-and-coming young actors to fill out the cast.
Heard would be joined by Thomas Guiry — fresh from his work in Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River — in the role of PJ Lee, Carl’s troubled youngest son. Cast as PJ’s embittered older brother Ben, was Clayne Crawford, soon to be seen in director John Dahl’s The Great Raid from Miramax films. In the role of Amy Barnes, PJ’s attentive girlfriend, Real Women Have Curves star America Ferrera was brought in.
For the remaining cast members, the filmmakers looked to the world of stage and television. For Marianne, Carl’s ex-wife and the mother of Ben and PJ, the filmmakers cast Laurie Metcalf, a multiple Emmy winner for her work on “Roseanne.” As Marianne’s new husband Randall, the production brought in Emmy nominee James McDaniel of “NYPD Blue” fame. For the pivotal role of PJ’s ex-Marine uncle Vic, playwright-actor Raymond J. Barry (Born on the Forth of July, Training Day) was employed to round out the cast.
Principle photography on Steel City began on December 1, 2004 in and around Jun’s hometown of Alton, Illinois. Granted unrestricted access to locales and resources and the cooperation of seemingly the entire community, Jun’s production team went to work, capturing a snapshot of a working class town off the Mississippi during the frigid, long nights of winter.
After braving the elements, the production wrapped shortly before Christmas and moved back to Los Angeles for post. Steel City was selected as part of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival in the dramatic competition category where it played to rave reviews from viewers and critics alike. The film has been sold overseas to New Films International and is scheduled for a May 2007 theatrical release in the U.S.
To learn more and see the trailer and exclusive clips from the film visit Steel City's Myspace.