I hope in the film they mention pinball was legal in most of the United States at that time. And my Father went after the city of Minneapolis ten years earlier.

LTG : )

FFS

No mustache!? Time to recast

They're adding it in post.

Message from the writers/directors of the film that they wanted me to pass along. Please PM me if interested in helping.

Thanks,
Josh Sharpe

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Hello! We are Austin and Meredith Bragg, two filmmakers creating a feature film based on the life of Roger Sharpe — including his work writing Pinball! and his role in overturning New York City’s 35-year ban on the game.

Full disclosure: We love pinball, but are not pinheads. In fact, we’re not even very good players. But after spending the better part of a year interviewing Roger and hearing the passion he has for the game — we really, REALLY want to make sure we get the pinball history right!

Which is why we are asking for help.

We’re on the lookout for period appropriate machines that could be used in the film. The more we can find and get to set, the better looking this film will be.

There are a few machines we know we need to keep the story accurate (EL DORADO, BANK SHOT, SHARPSHOOTER, and either PLANETS or ZODIAC are all must-haves). But we have a number of arcade scenes we’d love to fill as well.

Though any games from 1975 or earlier would be useful, Roger helpfully pinpointed a few specific titles meaningful to his story: HURDY GURDY, SUBWAY, MAJORETTES, HEAT WAVE, MOULIN ROUGE, COW POKE, STAR ACTION, SPACELAB, DARLING, SKY JUMP, SATIN DOLL, FIRECRACKER, and FIREBALL.

We’re scheduled to go into pre-production in early September and shoot in New York’s Hudson Valley between mid-October and mid-November. (We wouldn’t necessarily need the machines for that length of time, but don’t have hard dates quite yet.)

To be clear: this is an indie film. Our budget is healthy enough to make sure what we put on screen will be quality, but it’s still a period piece — which are particularly costly. So we can’t transport machines too far from the Hudson Valley on the project’s dime.

What we can promise is gratitude, credit, and a film you can point to and say “they got it right.”

We want to make a film the pinball community can be proud of. One that elevates the game and the people who made it. Any help you might be able to provide sourcing these machines would be huge.

Many thanks.

-The Bragg Brothers

I am now part of the crew as the Pinball Tech and consultant!

Production is underway!

Years ago my boss called me into a last minute interview with him. When I walked in the door, Roger Sharpe was sitting in the room. We talked about his book, and I was a little starstruck. He eventually went to work for a competitor. Always seemed like a nice gentleman to me.

Virtual tickets available for the St. Louis Film Festival:

https://watch.eventive.org/2022sliff/play/634cc1530ae00c003db6687e

Looks like 149 virtual tickets available.

Any idea when this will be able to be streamed nationwide? I was all excited to do this till I got this....

This content is only available in the following regions: Missouri, Illinois.

Wider distribution March 17th:
https://deadline.com/2022/12/pinball-the-man-who-saved-the-game-acquired-by-vertical-entertainment-1235202792/

It is a cute little movie.
A love story really,
two actually
The love Roger had for the game of pinball
and the love Roger had for Ellen
his future and present wife.
Really well made, the writing, acting and direction were all very good.
Buy the movie online for $10 or rent it.

Decent review on RogerEbert.com
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pinball-the-man-who-saved-the-game-2023

Spent the $7 and rented it on Apple TV+. It was a nice flick, well-written, and you could feel the chemistry between the Roger and Ellen characters in the film. I didn’t really know the history that led up to the 1976 NYC ban reversal, so that was enlightening. Maybe my only criticism is that it would have been nice to have Sharpe in front of the camera narrating the story in the “interview” style, instead of an actor, but his involvement in the film provided enough authenticity. Probably not a film I would watch over and over, but no regrets on the rental. Enjoyable and entertaining.

As a filmmaker and pinball enthusiast, I absolutely loved this film. Fantastic casting, great acting and as Ryguy80 identified, the chemistry between the two leads was palpable.

It’s incredibly hard to make any film, especially a period film on a low budget.

I really feel they told Roger’s story well. Kudos to the team.

I just ordered it on Prime. I’m looking forward to watching it tonight after i’m done banging on my machines.

Just saw it and liked it very much. The acting was top notch and the narration was well done. Extra points for cinematography, art direction and accuracy of the time period with proper games. Maybe I/we're biased because we're pinball players, but it was a fun little film that even non-pinheads would enjoy.

Saving it for this weekend.

I couldn’t wait, the movie is a solid thumbs up. It was well done and an easy watch. I also watched the complete credits and noticed that Pinball Resource Steve Young has a consulting credit. There was also credits for machines being loaned for the movie. I’m sure there are some Pinsiders on that list.

Rewatched it again last night, this time with the wife.
She enjoyed it enough,
(her normal movie choice are horror paranormal thriller Halloween type stuff)/

Movie holds up well with 2nd viewing.
My favorite scene (of many)
is where Roger goes thru the routine of calling Ellen for 1st time,
then realizes he may have lost her number/
That scene also has the best backing music track.

Eddie Cramer, Bryon Estes and Joe Said were 3 names that stood out to me.

Watched the movie twice. Makes me appreciate the game more.

Rented it on Apple+ last night, I was underwhelmed.

Amazon lowered the price on this, $3.99 rental or $9.99 purchase

Finally got a chance to see the film last week. I thought for what it was, it was well done and fun to watch and I really enjoyed it! It definitely got me itching to play on some EM's and afterwards I definitely went straight to the game room and played the EM that's in my current lineup!

Howard Levine should be in there too !

Anyone know if there are plans for them to release a BD of this?

This film is now showing on HULU
if you are interested in seeing it.

My wife and I watched this tonight. I knew the history, and Roger's story. She did not.

I thought the movie was VERY well done. The way it incorporated the interview and the actual storyline was just great. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. And interestingly enough, my wife, who is NOT into pinball, also very much enjoyed it.

Even if you know the story, it is a fantastic movie.

Chris

Although it was about pinball, it was a borderline chick flick.

True, but it made it something my wife and I could both enjoy, which I appreciated. So many pinball and gaming movies or documentaries make the people look just all geeky and awkward. This was different in a good way. It had soul.

Chris