Every movie faces a few obstacles on its journey to the screen. But "Pride and Glory" has been beset by almost every plague imaginable short of locusts: The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a rival police movie that knocked it off the schedule, Nick Nolte's bum knee, the collapse of a movie studio, the indifference of another, three release dates and even a fight over a studio executive's actor brother.
On Friday, more than two years after its filming was completed, "Pride and Glory" arrives in theaters with a new lease on life. Given up for dead by New Line Cinema and even shopped to other distributors, the Edward Norton-Colin Farrell crooked cop story has been embraced by the new marketing team at Warner Bros., hopeful that audiences will welcome a gritty drama at a time when titles such as "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" are thriving.
"Sometimes what you think is the worst thing that could happen -- if you are patient and wait it out -- can be the best thing that could happen," says writer-director Gavin O'Connor. "I am very grateful."
O'Connor, who also directed 2004's ice hockey hit "Miracle," began work on "Pride and Glory" soon after he sold "Tumbleweeds" to Fine Line Features at 1999's Sundance Film Festival. Working with screenwriter Joe Carnahan ("Narc"), O'Connor crafted a tale of police corruption and family divisions that was partially inspired by the stories O'Connor heard around the dinner table as a kid -- his father, grandfather and uncle all were New York City cops.
"The seed of the movie . . . was that cops bleed blue and that families bleed red," O'Connor says. In other words, if policemen do whatever it takes to protect their own, what happens when those officers are also related to one another?
The film's patriarch is Francis Tierney Sr. (Jon Voight), a police chief whose sons Francis Jr. (Noah Emmerich) and Ray (Edward Norton) are officers connected to a shooting in which four officers have been gunned down. A group of rogue cops led by Jimmy Egan (Farrell) may be involved in the ambush shooting, but the inquiry is complicated because Jimmy is Ray and Francis Jr.'s brother-in-law.
Originally called "Manhattan North," it was supposed to be a $10-million Fine Line art-house film. When it was clear it would cost much more (it ultimately cost around $30 million) and have greater commercial potential, the project migrated to parent New Line Cinema, and Hugh Jackman (as Ray) and Mark Wahlberg (as Jimmy) were loosely attached to star. (Nolte would join the cast later as the father.)
