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Church Ball
Church Ball is a 2006 sports comedy film written and directed by Kurt Hale. It follows an underdog Latter-day Saint church basketball team and their attempts to make it to the championship in the league's last season. The film stars Andrew Wilson, Fred Willard, Clint Howard, and Gary Coleman.[2] PlotA local Utah LDS Church holds the record as having the worst basketball team in the church ball league. The team has failed to make it into the church tournament in the past 20 years. Due to rumors of this being the last year of the league, former team coach, and now Bishop Linderman (Fred Willard) has called Dennis Buckstead (Andrew Wilson) to coach a team made of clumsy misfits to the championship. Church expectations of brotherly love, sportsmanship, and fellowship fall prey to competitive fierceness in the effort to win, while Dennis works to bring unity and cooperation. Cast
ProductionDevelopment and castingThe original script for the film was written years beforehand by Kurt Hale, Paul Eagleston, and Stephen Rose.[3] Halestorm Entertainment began production of the film in 2005. Gary Coleman was cast as Charles Higgins. Andrew Wilson, Clint Howard, and Fred Willard were later cast as Dennis Buckstead, Gene Jensen, and Bishop Linderman, respectively.[2] FilmingFilming took place primarily in Orem and Provo, Utah in 2005. The former Douglas Ward meetinghouse at 721 S 1200 E in Salt Lake City and the former Wallsburg meetinghouse in Wallsburg were both used for filming.[4] During filming, Gary Coleman met his now wife, Shannon Price, on set. Price was an extra in the film.[5] ReceptionThe review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes surveyed twelve critics and reported a 17 percent approval rating. Among the reviews, it determined an average rating of 4.3 out of 10. It received a 39% approval rating from audiences.[6] On IMDb, it holds an average of 4.2 out of 10 star audience rating. Actor's responsesGary Coleman described his dissatisfaction with the film's quality. Although he stated he enjoyed the process of making the film, he remarked that watching the production process was like "giving monkeys cameras and lights." Despite this, the project introduced Coleman to Utah, and he moved to Santaquin soon after filming. He later commented that he was thankful to Kurt hale for introducing him to the state.[3] Clint Howard praised Halestorm Entertainment for producing family-friendly entertainment.[3] References
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