‘The Unbreakable Boy’ highlighting Scott LeRette family gets Feb. 21 release date

“The Unbreakable Boy,” the film adapted from Red Oak native Scott LeRette’s award-winning novel, has a premiere date of Feb. 21.
The film’s cast includes Zachary Levi playing Scott, Meghann Fahy as Teresa LeRette, as well as Patricia Heaton and Peter Facinelli. Initially, the film was set for release in March of 2022, but now will see a wide release next month. The novel and film center around Scott and Austin LeRette. Austin was diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta, a disease which causes his bones to fracture easily, as well as autism. Austin has some heart conditions as well.
“These are things that we live with every day, it’s just bigger and it’s different now because he’s an adult, but it’s equally as challenging as when he was 12,” LeRette said.
LeRette’s book, “The Unbreakable Boy: A Father’s Fear, A Son’s Courage, and a Story of Unconditional Love,” which inspired the film, started off humbly as journal entries, and then a blog, before it developed into a book.
“That’s a distinction that I really try to illustrate, especially when I’m speaking, and have people understand because it’s really easy to look at the trailer for the film and think it’s this cute autism story about this kid. I actually wrote it from my perspective as my life story. And it just so happens that there’s a character in it that’s extremely important. He’s kind of a catalyst for a lot of everything that happens,” commented LeRette.
Getting “The Unbreakable Boy” from a novel to the screen, LeRette said, has been a long process.
“I think it was 2022 or 2023, there were over 100,000 screenplays that were submitted to the writer’s guild of America. And in that year that I pulled down, there were 114 of them that were made into films. That number doesn’t break it down into films that actually made it into a movie theater. It took me a long time. I had a friend who worked for NBC universal when my company was a part of GE and we kept in touch. And he’s always told me along the way, you have no clue of exactly what’s happened and what you’ve done,” explained LeRette. “It really took me a long time to embrace what he was talking about. There’s not a lot of movies that come out in the grand scheme of things. There are thousands of screenplays and in the case of the majority of them, nothing happens. I do appreciate and am grateful for what has happened. Even with the book, I had a book that was published with the biggest publisher in the world. I think my mantra prior to my faith becoming as important as it is and me re-finding my faith was that I had this mantra of: I know I’ll never fail as long as I don’t quit.”
LeRette said he had initially considered turning the novel into a television show, and dealt with countless rejections regarding the project before a gentleman in New York City connected him with his brother-in-law, who was in California making films.
“I ended up in Los Angeles and I got a text message and I didn’t know who it was. I was looking up his name on IMDB and I was floored by what I saw. I texted my wife back and asked if I should wear green pants, and I texted her this photo of this extremely good looking man in an underwear ad. And she never responded back to me. Finally, I looked down at my phone and my jaw hit the floor. I didn’t send the text to my wife, I sent it to the man who contacted me, Peter Facinelli, who is the father vampire in all the Twilight movies,” LeRette stated. “I did end up going and having lunch with him the next day. And we sat down in this really trendy place in Toluca Lake. And he leans across the table and the first thing he says to me is, so tell me about the green pants. And, and that’s how we met. And honest to goodness, we became friends over about a year’s time.”
Through that friendship, LeRette and Facinelli formed a partnership to get the script made with Facinelli pitching the film to studios. After 12 months, no progress had been made, and LeRette feared he’d be back to square one until Facinelli offered a six-month contract extension. From there, big things happened.
“Three months into the extension, I ended up flying to L.A. and we signed with Lionsgate and that’s where we are today. Peter is playing a small role in the upcoming film and he’s a producer for the movie too,” said LeRette.
While initially seeing his family’s life story recreated on film with other people was unique, he’s gotten quite used to it.
“I’ve seen the film probably about 20 or 30 times. I’ve seen it in all different forms, from black and white to no music, or no sound effects. Every time there was a different edit, we’d get a link for it. I’ve actually seen it in the movie theater one time at a screening. I’ve gotten used to talking about myself in the third person. It’s pretty wild. It, I think it’s going to be really, really impactful and really hit me right in the solar plexus when we have the premiere and the red carpet and I’m watching the film with the cast and crew That’s going to be really surreal, I think, but I’ve gotten used to it, kinda.”
One thing that LeRette has enjoyed, now that he’s seen the finished film so many times, is how it affects new viewers.
“It’s fun to watch other people and to see strangers as well as people that I’ve actually known that have seen it. They tell me about how crazy it can seem. The trailer’s been going for three weeks now and the trailer’s got so many views. I know one site’s got almost 30 million views on the trailer, and it’s been in front of all the big movies from Wicked to Moana,” commented LeRette.
With “The Unbreakable Boy” set for wide distribution, LeRette said it will be released in 95% of movie theaters in North America and Western Europe and some other countries as well. As for the delay of the film’s release from 2022 to now, LeRette said it came down to two factors.
“It’s marketing and demographics. Even though we come out of COVID, there were still certain segments of our population that were not back in the movie theaters. That’s still in effect to this day. The studio didn’t want to waste what they had when they felt like there were two specific demographics they wanted to reach as an audience. Those demographics are much better today. As much as it was horrible to wait, it totally was the right decision with what we know now. The market’s changed. Now, versus three years ago, people want more real stories that are meaningful and that resonate with them and they can connect to.”
LeRette said he’s excited to see the novel transformed into another medium for people to see and enjoy.
“There are parts of me that think that the movie is going to be better because oftentimes it’s the reverse, you know, the book’s better. Obviously the movie can’t present everything that was in the book. And it doesn’t, but it’s totally the essence of what the book was. If we would have presented everything, it would have been a 10 hour movie. But it’s, it’s still the Unbreakable Boy. There’s more we’re going to do, after the movie, there’s more to come. Peter and I have got our eye on the next steps,” advised LeRette.
LeRette gives special credit to his family, including Austin, wife Teresa, and son Logan. And his friends, for getting him through the difficult times.
“It took me forever to realize what that perseverance and not quitting was. It was because it had taken just so many years and my wife and my family supporting me to understand that. I walked away from God when I was like 18. And today, he’s the pillar of my whole existence. Peter Facinelli has also become a dear friend. He said, your family, and your story is going to change the world. And again, that was another thing I couldn’t quite embrace and understand what he meant. I do now,” LeRette stated. “We did a special screening in Omaha a couple weeks ago. And there were some people that contacted us, and said how it affected them. And it shocked me. Everybody, to a certain extent, is broken and messed up and flawed. My brokenness just happens to be extra colorful. Whether you’re talking about special needs, addiction, suicide, marriage, parenting, there’s something in there for everybody to appreciate. And maybe look inside themselves and, you know, look at their own situation and realize something about themselves because of what they saw in our story.”
You can learn more about the film and view the trailer at theunbreakableboy.movie, unbreakableboy.com, imdb.com/title/tt5181260/, facebook.com/unbreakableboymovie, or instagram.com/unbreakableboy/?hl=en.

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