David Max interviews Justin LePera who is the director of the 'Day by Day' Movie about Coach Tom Osborne
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00:00 - Hey, this is David Max from huskermax.com.
00:05 And today I'm interviewing Justin LaPera,
00:13 who is the director of the day-by-day movie
00:18 about the national championship teams of the 1990s.
00:23 So welcome, Justin.
00:24 Thanks for sharing your time with us.
00:26 - Yeah, thanks David.
00:27 Thanks for having me.
00:28 - So how did you meet Josh Davis?
00:32 Assuming that's how this whole thing got started.
00:34 - Yeah, so Josh and I actually went to high school together.
00:37 So my coach, my office coordinator was Tony Davis.
00:42 And so- - Oh really?
00:43 - Yeah, so I'm Josh's-
00:45 - It's all in the family, so to speak.
00:47 - Yeah, so he went off to Nebraska
00:49 and then I went off to LA to pursue a film career
00:54 and moved back to Colorado and we always kept in touch.
00:58 Actually, we're at the Colorado Nebraska game in 2019,
01:03 I believe, and just kind of, we're talking about
01:08 how come a movie hasn't been done about Coach Osborne yet?
01:10 And so I started looking into it
01:13 and nothing had been done from a huge scale of like,
01:16 you know, Netflix, there had been stuff done, of course,
01:19 but nothing, you know, at a grand scale
01:22 going to possibly theaters or going on to Netflix
01:25 and some of those other areas and just on demand.
01:28 So that was kind of how it all started.
01:30 We talked about it and said,
01:32 why don't we figure out a way to get this put together?
01:35 - So who wrote the script or who?
01:37 - So really the guys do the writing, right?
01:42 So like, so what we did was we did a series of interviews
01:45 starting with Coach Osborne.
01:48 So I sat down with him for about four and a half,
01:50 five hours interviewing him through that time period.
01:53 And then we ended up getting up to 50 interviews,
01:57 including Coach Bobby Bowden to Barry Switzer,
02:01 even Peyton and Archie Manning,
02:02 then obviously Tommy Frazier, Scott Frost,
02:05 you know, a lot of the big names from that time period.
02:09 And then what we also did,
02:11 which was a little bit different was we did round tables
02:14 where we would have four, three to four of the players
02:18 sit at a round table and they would all be able to just talk
02:21 and tell stories.
02:22 And then we accumulated all this footage
02:25 from all these different interviews.
02:27 And we really kind of mapped out the story
02:30 through them telling it essentially.
02:33 - So they were the actual writers, so to speak.
02:35 - Right.
02:36 - You know, so out of all of the coaches and players,
02:40 you know, like I said, the 50 coaches and players,
02:42 you know, which ones were on your bucket list to me?
02:45 - Oh, okay.
02:46 Yeah, so like, you know, obviously Coach Ron Brown,
02:50 I've always enjoyed hearing him talk.
02:52 So he was one of those guys,
02:53 but definitely Barry Switzer was incredible.
02:57 I don't know if you've got a chance to talk
02:59 to Barry Switzer, but he's just,
03:00 when he goes in and tells those stories,
03:02 it's just, he's such a character.
03:04 And then obviously Coach Osborne to Tommy Frazier,
03:08 Scott Frost was a big one.
03:09 At the time, Scott Frost had just started
03:12 with coaching at Nebraska.
03:14 So there was a lot of anticipation,
03:16 a lot of excitement there.
03:17 So that was interesting.
03:19 And then Bobby Bowden was a coach
03:21 I had always wanted to talk to.
03:22 And Coach Spurrier as well.
03:25 And then some of the guys that just kind of,
03:27 I always remembered that I thought would be really cool
03:29 to connect with was Troy Dumas.
03:31 I wanted to see what he was like,
03:33 'cause he was such a beast.
03:34 And Dwayne Harris to see what those guys
03:36 were really like in person.
03:38 And unbelievable guys and really fun.
03:41 And Dwayne's one of the funniest guys I've ever heard,
03:43 you know, speak.
03:44 And so it was a lot of fun with all those guys.
03:47 But I mean, gosh, there's so many guys
03:49 that we got to interview.
03:51 I could go on with just how cool it was
03:53 to talk to all these guys,
03:55 'cause they all had such different perspectives.
03:58 - So where was the filming done
04:00 with Rumbles Roundtable?
04:01 That was like a unique background
04:02 that all the Nebraska memorabilia behind it and everything.
04:05 So where was that at?
04:06 - Yeah, so that was at Vintage Red.
04:09 So- - At where?
04:11 - It was called Vintage Red.
04:13 And it was right in the Haymarket District area.
04:18 Unfortunately, it's not there anymore.
04:19 So it was a Husker, basically a Husker museum.
04:24 A guy by the name of JC Wistrom started it up
04:27 and unfortunately it's not there anymore,
04:30 but that's what we were able,
04:32 we were lucky enough to film there.
04:33 And then we also filmed around the stadium
04:36 and the facilities at the university.
04:39 - Okay, so what were some of the challenges
04:42 in making the film?
04:44 - So I think the biggest challenge for us
04:46 was how do you make this not a eight hour movie?
04:50 I think that was the thing is how much footage we had
04:53 because when you go into Coach Osborne's story,
04:56 you have to start prior to him even becoming the head coach
05:01 to truly understand kind of the journey that he went on.
05:04 And so it's like, where do you start and where do you end?
05:07 Because the impact that he had then after he left,
05:11 what was left for the university.
05:14 I mean, so trying to tell a story,
05:16 we ended up making it into four hours.
05:19 It's a four hour story that's essentially two movies.
05:22 And so we had to make it a two part series,
05:25 but each movie separates from each other.
05:29 They're very different stories.
05:30 But anyways, to answer your question,
05:32 it was definitely the length cutting this story down
05:36 to make it an actual two part movie.
05:39 - So right now the first movie is out.
05:41 So there's a second movie in the works
05:43 or it's coming out?
05:44 - Yeah, it'll come out shortly after,
05:47 whether it'll be this fall or later on,
05:52 kind of near when the, in between when the Super Bowl,
05:55 that break when the NFL breaks from,
05:57 the playoff championships to the Super Bowl.
06:01 So maybe in that window.
06:02 So it'll either be early, very early 2024,
06:06 or actually coming out this fall.
06:08 That's what we're kind of waiting to hear back
06:10 from the distributor on.
06:12 - So what do you want to see the Nebraska fan base
06:15 take away from this film?
06:17 - So I think a couple of things
06:19 for those that got to experience it,
06:21 I think it'll be a really fun ride
06:24 'cause there'll be a lot of things.
06:25 I think that'll bring back some really cool memories.
06:28 But on top of that, you're going to get access
06:32 that maybe you haven't had before
06:34 to what was going on behind the scenes
06:36 and to truly understand what made these teams very unique.
06:41 And I think the biggest thing I'd want Nebraska fans
06:44 to get out of or anybody who watches the movie
06:46 is just to understand,
06:47 just to learn from Coach Osborne's legacy
06:51 and what this team did and how they did it the right way.
06:54 And really the adversity that they had to endure
06:58 is the same types of adversity
07:00 we have to endure in life every day.
07:02 And so I think we can all take something away
07:03 from those times when you're knocked down
07:06 or those times when you're told
07:07 you're never going to win the big one
07:09 and pushing through and persevering
07:11 beyond what the noise is outside.
07:14 - So, I did a little research on you
07:18 and I see that you went to the University of Colorado.
07:20 So is Nebraska now your first or second favorite team?
07:24 - It's definitely up there with Colorado.
07:26 Yeah, I'm glad they don't normally play each other.
07:28 I guess they are this year though.
07:31 But yeah, that's the thing.
07:33 I actually grew up a huge Colorado fan.
07:35 So what was crazy was if you were a big Colorado fan
07:39 back in the '90s, you knew everything about Nebraska
07:44 'cause Nebraska constantly was that one team
07:47 that kept them out of any kind of national championship run
07:52 for the most part.
07:53 And so you couldn't help but respect
07:57 what Tom Osborne was doing over there.
07:59 Obviously jealous that he was over there
08:00 and not a Colorado coach.
08:02 But yeah, so you learned a lot about the players.
08:05 You had a massive amount of respect
08:07 'cause this is that one team,
08:09 kind of like Oklahoma was for Nebraska in the '70s.
08:13 That's kind of how Colorado fans looked at Nebraska.
08:17 - Okay, so tell us, how can people watch the movie?
08:22 I understand it's going to be like video on demand
08:26 or how can people get to the movie?
08:30 - Yeah, so the theatrical run will start first.
08:34 We always wanted to have a theatrical run in Nebraska,
08:37 something really special for the fans
08:39 so they could really have this movie for their own
08:42 in Nebraska and to see it on the big screen.
08:45 But then obviously there's tons of Nebraska fans
08:48 and sports fans all over the world.
08:49 So we're going to go directly to video on demand
08:52 starting on August 29th,
08:54 where you'll be able to either purchase or rent the movie.
08:57 And so that it'll end up all over
09:00 from whether it's Amazon to iTunes.
09:02 So people have access there.
09:04 And then potentially down the road,
09:06 you might even see it on certain networks that we will go to.
09:11 - We're looking forward to it.
09:12 I have had the opportunity to watch the full version
09:16 of the first edition
09:18 and Nebraska fans are really going to like it.
09:21 So Justin, thank you for taking some time
09:25 to share your thoughts with us.
09:26 Appreciate it.
09:27 - All right, thank you, David.
09:28 I really appreciate it.
09:29 - All right.
09:30 (silence)
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