Chasing Miracles, The Crowley Family Story - Part Two: Extraordinary Measures

• Culture Pop blog / "Extraordinary Measures" and my visit to the Crowley home | Click here

• The Crowley Family Story, Part One: The Diseases
  


• The Crowley Family Story, Part Two: Extraordinary Measures


• The Crowley Family Story, Part Three: The Family


• Brendan Fraser on playing the real John Crowley in 'Extraordinary Measures'

• Movie trailer / 'Extraordinary Measures' / Click here

The seeds of the movie Extraordinary Measures, in theaters January 22, were planted when Harrison Ford read the Wall Street Journal story about the Crowleys, took it to the producers of Erin Brockovich and said, “We should make a movie about this.” 

“After Geeta Anand’s front page story came out, we heard from many different people from so many walks of life, and  Geeta heard from a number of people about writing a book, and she asked if I would participate in that,” John recalls.

“So right around the time that we were getting ready to tell the story to potential publishers, Hollywood started calling,” John says. “It took us about six months or so to get comfortable with that concept, to sign your life rights away, to trust people to make a film and to do it the right way . . . to take that and actually make it an hour and forty minute major motion picture where you’ve got conflicts of business, science, and family issues … it was a Herculean challenge, and I think they did a terrific job,” says John, who has a cameo role in the movie.

The Crowleys were flown to Portland during production to visit the set, which allowed director Tom Vaughan and the actors to witness the family in action. “[Keri Russell, who plays Aileen in the film,] spent an afternoon just hanging out with the kids, getting to know them. She didn’t have to do that,” Aileen says. “They captured the spirit of the family, they captured the sense of urgency in building a business, they captured the enthusiasm and passion we all had, that entrepreneurial spirit to never, never quit,” says John. 

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Nster.com