razaar
23rd April 2009, 02:39 PM
Moe Norman Comes to the Big Screen
Barry Morrow wrote the script for Rain Man after he met Kim Peek. He wrote two screenplays for Television—Bill—played by Mickey Rooney after he met Bill Sackter.
Now he has written a script for a movie about Moe Norman, a remarkable golfer who was an 'unconventional ball-striking wizard who died in September of 2004 after being inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame." (See story (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/GAM.20090318.RUBE18/EmailTPStory/TPComment) in The Globe and Mail.) Tiger Woods indicated at one point: "Only two players have ever truly owned their swings, Moe Norman and Ben Hogan." A golf school has been set up in Oklahoma to teach Moe's simplest and most effective swing at www.swinglikemoe.com. (http://www.swinglikemoe.com/)
At the time of his death, USA Today carried an article (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/2004-09-28-norman_x.htm) on September 28, 2009, telling more about this very unique and memorable man. He had 17 holes in one, 9 double eagles, 3 sanctioned scores of 59, won more than 50 tournaments and set more than 30 course records. According to the USA Today story Moe was a whiz at math, had a photographic memory and "could remember the distance and layout of virtually every golf course he played." Also Moe was "just the most stupefying accurate golfer on the planet. Norman played competitive golf more than 50 years and witnesses say he played 11 of those years—that's about 230,000 golf shots—without hitting the ball out of bounds." At an exhibition in Florida, Moe began by hitting simple little pitching wedges about 90 yards "with the balls landing on top of each other in a space the size of a bedspread, colliding like little neurons when they hit."
Mr. Morrow has not decided as yet who will play the part of Moe Norman, but surely he will be instructed at the Golf Academy to master that incredible swing and accuracy. The film will capture as well the complex, unconventional and misunderstood, character that Moe was. The USA Today article writer goes on to state: "I never heard Norman speak about autism, but I know that he understood its cruelties in his car, which was filled with old newspaper clippings and the motivational tapes that helped rescue his life. He once had a well-worn article about autism sitting on the front seat. In the article the outdated term 'idiot savant' was discussed at length. Norman had crossed out the word idiot."
Based on Morrow's sensitive and engrossing work with Rain Man and Bill, it should be a another memorable movie.
Barry Morrow wrote the script for Rain Man after he met Kim Peek. He wrote two screenplays for Television—Bill—played by Mickey Rooney after he met Bill Sackter.
Now he has written a script for a movie about Moe Norman, a remarkable golfer who was an 'unconventional ball-striking wizard who died in September of 2004 after being inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame." (See story (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/GAM.20090318.RUBE18/EmailTPStory/TPComment) in The Globe and Mail.) Tiger Woods indicated at one point: "Only two players have ever truly owned their swings, Moe Norman and Ben Hogan." A golf school has been set up in Oklahoma to teach Moe's simplest and most effective swing at www.swinglikemoe.com. (http://www.swinglikemoe.com/)
At the time of his death, USA Today carried an article (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/2004-09-28-norman_x.htm) on September 28, 2009, telling more about this very unique and memorable man. He had 17 holes in one, 9 double eagles, 3 sanctioned scores of 59, won more than 50 tournaments and set more than 30 course records. According to the USA Today story Moe was a whiz at math, had a photographic memory and "could remember the distance and layout of virtually every golf course he played." Also Moe was "just the most stupefying accurate golfer on the planet. Norman played competitive golf more than 50 years and witnesses say he played 11 of those years—that's about 230,000 golf shots—without hitting the ball out of bounds." At an exhibition in Florida, Moe began by hitting simple little pitching wedges about 90 yards "with the balls landing on top of each other in a space the size of a bedspread, colliding like little neurons when they hit."
Mr. Morrow has not decided as yet who will play the part of Moe Norman, but surely he will be instructed at the Golf Academy to master that incredible swing and accuracy. The film will capture as well the complex, unconventional and misunderstood, character that Moe was. The USA Today article writer goes on to state: "I never heard Norman speak about autism, but I know that he understood its cruelties in his car, which was filled with old newspaper clippings and the motivational tapes that helped rescue his life. He once had a well-worn article about autism sitting on the front seat. In the article the outdated term 'idiot savant' was discussed at length. Norman had crossed out the word idiot."
Based on Morrow's sensitive and engrossing work with Rain Man and Bill, it should be a another memorable movie.