ESPN to produce TV-movie 'On the brink'

During the 1985-86 men's basketball season, then-head coach Bob Knight gave author John Feinstein a unique look into a season of the storied basketball program. Feinstein got an all-access look into the workings of the Hoosiers season as they struggled to avoid a losing season. Feinstein put his experiences with Knight at IU down on paper and released the best--selling "A Season on the Brink: A year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers."\nNow 15 years since the book's release, the cable sports channel ESPN is turning it into their maiden effort to create a made-for-TV movie based upon the book, the 1985-86 Hoosiers and their controvesial coach. The air date is set for 8 p.m. ET March 10, 2002. \nThe movie will be produced by Stan Brooks of Once Upon A Time Productions and will be written by David Rintels. Rintels has written made-for-TV movies such as "Nuremberg," "Andersonville" and "Sakharov." The movie will be produced by ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE).\n"By mounting such high-profile productions, we hope to further entertain our core viewers and attract the millions of young, casual sports fans, enriching their appreciation and sharpening their knowledge of sports entertainment," senior vice-president and general manager of ESPN programming Mark Shapiro said in a press release issued Friday.\nThe adaptation will begin production in November, but the decison-making on casting and where it will be filmed is set to begin this week, according to Paul Melvin of ESPN communications.\n"Everyone should start coming in this week and try to figure everything out," Melvin said. "We're looking at several places, but we've never really done anything like this before. We've really just started to get off the ground."\nDirector of IU athletics media relations Jeff Fanter said he has not been contacted about anything having to do with the film, but said in the past, the athletics department has been cooperative with filmmakers. One such instance occured when the film "Blue Chips" was in pre-production and during production as Knight made an appearance in the film.\n"We've never had a movie that was specific to IU like this," Fanter said. "But we haven't been contacted about this."\nFanter wouldn't speculate on what the intentions of the production staff where as far as where the film would be shot and whether or not they could use the athletics facilities at IU. For now, Melvin said EOE focusing on informing those parties that will be affected the most by this film. \n"We want to get to the word out to those who have read the book and will be the most interested. Those people are in Bloomington and in Lubbock (Texas)," Melvin said.\nMelvin said the recent controversy surrounding Knight is not being taken into consideration yet but did admit it could become a factor further into production. \n"The relationship (Feinstein) had (with Knight) and how much in depth he got from that season -- we want to stick as true to the book as possible," Melvin said.