MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY 
AND MATTHEW FOX BUILD HOPE IN WE ARE MARSHALL

 rue stories of the gridiron have often been the backdrop for some of Hollywood's greatest sport's flicks -- from the classic football underdog story Rudy to the recent Mark Wahlberg film Invincible. The newest addition to the genre is We Are Marshall -- a story that encompasses tragedy, determination and perseverance. 

  In Huntington, West Virginia, 1970, Marshall University's "Thundering Herd" football team represented a way of life. For decades, players, coaches, families and fans cheered them on like heroes. While flying home from a game at East Carolina University, the plane carrying 75 passengers, including 37 members of the team, including head coach Rick Tolley, and 30 other staff members, crashed killing everyone onboard. 

  As those left behind struggled to cope with the devastating loss of their loved ones, the grieving families found hope and strength in the leadership of Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey), a young coach who was determined to rebuild Marshall's football program and in the process help heal a community. 
actors
Matthew McConaughey
Matthew Fox
David Straithairn

director
McG

location
Atlanta, Georgia
Huntington, West
Virginia
outtake
The team's cheerleaders were not on board the doomed flight because there wasn't any room on the plane.


  "This story was the first script that I had read since Dazed and Confused, that I read it one time, didn't ask about the offer or anything else, just shut it and said, 'I'm in,'" said McConaughey to Movieweb. "It's a great story. Then to find out that it was true, and I didn't know about it, and how well it was put together. Boy, the truth is better than fiction."

  Red Dawson (Matthew Fox), Marshall's assistant coach -- who was not on the ill-fated plane trip because he stayed behind to scout players for the following season -- musters up the energy to help Lengyel with his goals. Although Fox grew up playing football and played the sport through college, We Are Marshall was his first experience looking at it from a coach's view.

  To prepare for the role, Fox had the real-life Dawson fly down to Hawaii and spend time with him while he was on the set of his TV show, Lost. "He'd come to the set with me on Lost… and we got to know each other. That was the first step," Fox told Movieweb. "And then the next step was a more difficult process and that was me asking him questions about recollections, memories, things he hadn't done a lot of talking about."

  McConaughey also got to meet the real Lengyel to understand what he was going through during the rough time. "I talked to him quite a bit. I basically know his story. I'm not coming in here to do an imitation," McConaughey said. "One of the basic things I picked up on, is that he was an outsider. He was the only guy who wasn't an alumni who they interviewed for the job. He went in and understood. He has a huge heart how he goes about things; he understands how they feel."

-- Mark Guilherme