Stolen Summer

Stolen Summer
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPete Jones
Written byPete Jones
Produced byChris Moore
Ben Affleck
Matt Damon
StarringAidan Quinn
Bonnie Hunt
Kevin Pollak
Brian Dennehy
CinematographyPeter Biagi
Edited byGregg Featherman
Music byDanny Lux
Distributed byMiramax Films
Release date
  • March 22, 2002 (2002-03-22)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.8 million
Box office$134,736

Stolen Summer is a 2002 American drama film about a Catholic boy who befriends a terminally ill Jewish boy and tries to convert him, believing that it is the only way the Jewish boy will get to Heaven. Directed by first time writer/director Pete Jones, Stolen Summer is the first film produced for Project Greenlight, an independent film competition created by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and sponsored by HBO.[1] Project Greenlight aired on HBO as a documentary series chronicling the selection of Jones's script from approximately seven thousand entries, and the production of the film in Chicago in 2001.

The film's casting department considered the casting of the Jewish Adi Stein as the Catholic Pete O'Malley, an ironic joke due to the characters attempting to convert a Jewish boy to Catholicism.[2][3]

Cast

Box office

The domestic total gross for the film was $134,726. Production costs were $1.8 million.[4]

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 36%. The site's critical consensus is, "Stolen Summer feels like a sugary after-school special stretched out to feature length." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

References

  1. ^ Stolen Summer New York Times.
  2. ^ Rohan, Virginia (March 20, 2002). "Faithful Portrayal; Jewish Boy Plays A Catholic Who Tries To Convert A Jew". The Record. pp. f10.
  3. ^ Arnold, Gary (May 10, 2002). "It's heartfelt; 'Summer' bonds families during a crisis over leukemia". Washington Times. pp. B05.
  4. ^ Box Office Mojo page for "Stolen Summer" (accessed February 23, 2007).