In 2015, when Japan’s national rugby team, defeated South Africa, the most dominant team in rugby’s world cup history, three friends who were also fans of the sport knew the story had to be told. In the words of the producers themselves, the following is what it took to make, The Brighton Miracle.
Regarded as the greatest upset in rugby history, a true David and Goliath story in Brighton, UK, on 19 September 2015. Dubbed by the media as, “The Miracle of Brighton”, the game pitted a vastly superior team who were bigger, stronger, and faster, against a team who had won 1 solitary game in 22 previous world cup attempts, with a humiliating 145-17 defeat a part of their inglorious history.
Writer/Director Max Mannix, along with Emmy Award winning musician, Nick Wood, and colleague, Tim Farmer, decided “The Miracle of Brighton” had all the makings of a great film. The trio would be first-time independent filmmakers outside of Hollywood so as with many things, the first hurdle was money.
Max Mannix (MM): “We knew it was a great story. In rugby, the little guy doesn’t win these games, it just doesn’t happen, especially against South Africa in a World Cup. But Japan had won, and a quick online search would show that. We therefore took a TITANIC approach. Everybody knows the ship sinks. With Brighton, people knew the ending, but they knew little of the path taken to get there.”
Mannix, a former professional rugby league player, moved to Japan and became a screenwriter. His first screenplay was sold in a bidding war and his second script, TOKYO SONATA, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, went on to win the Jury Prize at Cannes. While in Japan on another project, Mannix had a chance meeting with Eddie Jones, the coach of the Japan national team who then recruited Mannix to become the team’s defense coach.
How to Tell the Story
Sports stories are challenging because the outcome is typically already well-known and retelling them begs many questions – “why does this story need to be retold?” and “how do we do it?”
MM: “At the beginning of the process we kept asking ourselves if we could recreate the actual game. We studied more than thirty films about sports such as: JERRY MAGUIRE, ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, ROCKY… anything that we felt had showed believable sports action. Our mindset was on recreating the game and we would need heavy CGI. The potential costs were enormous. I looked at game segments of INVICTUS, over and over again. Although a lauded film, a common complaint from viewers was the game recreation itself.
History Collides With the Present
For Mannix and Wood, the more they learned about Coach Jones the more they were intrigued to tell his story.
TF: “Part of our ‘Titanic’ narrative was, yes, the team won, but let’s also look at what this guy had to overcome. What was his journey? That said, the clock was ticking and we still had no script, no permissions for life rights, and nowhere near enough money to make the film. I was starting to feel like I was on the Titanic.”
Coach and Captain
When Coach Jones selected Michael Leitch – who is half-Fijian, half-New Zealander – to captain the Japanese team, the decision was controversial in the Japan media due to the fact that he wasn’t Japanese although Leitch had lived in Japan since he was 14.
TF: “We got some traction with funding and things were shaping up, but time was now critical. We wanted to make the film and release it in the lead up to the following Rugby World Cup. Held every 4 years, the next was the first to be held in Asia, and Japan was the tournament host. We were 18 months from the event and still didn’t have all of our money or permissions. We were running against a clock we had no control over. We felt that if we missed the Rugby World Cup we would miss a fantastic marketing opportunity.”
Permissions & Rights
Jones’s agreed immediately to support the film but the three producers did not anticipate the challenges of acquiring permission from World Rugby and the Japanese Rugby Association.
NW: “World Rugby had a ‘one-out, all-out’ mandate meaning if one of their six partners declined us, the film was dead. Still, I wanted to ensure that we had music if things somehow came together. While Max worked on a pitch document, I experimented with sounds. I discovered that hitting a rugby ball with a solid wooden stick in a basement car park made the sound of bodies impacting. I had to convince myself I wasn’t reaching, or merely taking out my frustration! I played the sounds to Max and he agreed they sounded perfect. It was a camaraderie of hope that kept us positively active and moving forward.”
TF: “Waiting for responses from the six World Rugby partners was painful. Our money was coming together, but with the Rugby World Cup now 13 months away, we were still waiting for an answer. Regardless, we had to keep moving. We went after permissions from players via their agents with most of them asking the same question: ‘Does World Rugby support this?’”
Permission from all World Rugby Partners
When permission from World Rugby was finally secured, The Brighton Miracle film became real. It was now a question of casting with the most important role being Coach Eddie Jones.
TF: “We all offered up casting ideas. Max flew around and saw some actors but nothing was sticking. It was like we were filling a place for the sake of, rather than finding the right fit.”
MM: “I was on a limb so I sent project material out to some friends in the industry including WOLF CREEK director, Greg McLean who got back with somebody who had an uncanny resemblance to Eddie. His text was a one liner tagged to a photo, ‘This has to be your Eddie Jones actor.’ The actor was Temuera Morrison, known for his STAR WARS role of the iconic Boba Fett.
We All Thought Our Finance was Rock Solid
A mere 12 months out from the Rugby World Cup, and therefore 11 months from the targeted release, disaster hit the production- some of the funding commitments fell out.
MM: “The companies had promised to support the film, but in one of those vague explanations that sometimes happen in life, the funds were pulled due to what I was told were, ‘conflicting business structures.’ We’d learnt the hard way. No matter whom the promise is from, promised funds mean nothing until they’re in your account.”
NW: “Max and I met at a hotel that night. I don’t know who was more stunned. We just sat there thinking, ‘how did we stuff that up?’ In desperation, we started going through lists of people we might have overlooked when seeking support. We had a government rebate, a presale, and some real money, but we were still 50 percent short. It was a nightmare.”
The Ship Was Sinking
With the film pushed back, production start was a mere 5 months from the film’s release date. Funding for the film was still not locked, and to compound issues, the actor secured to play Michael Leitch had a conflict with the new shoot date so he had to withdraw from The Brighton Miracle.
A Bridge to Hollywood
Luckily at the last minute, schedules were sorted and funding came in so the film was a go. Nick Wood, called upon colleagues. Hollywood stalwart and marketing whiz, Milissa Douponce, jumped onboard and provided invaluable pathways.
NW: “I’d known Milissa for many years. She’s a straight shooter and well connected. She helped in so many ways and introduced us to another long term Hollywood executive, Dean Blagg. Through Dean we met Blue Sky Media. Everything was finally clicking together.”
Real Characters Mixed Amongst Actors
6 weeks from shooting, a key issue kept popping into Mannix’s head; “How do we transition the audience from dramatized recreations throughout the story, to real footage of the game?”
MM: “The thought of it felt clunky. On one hand I wanted this to be a true story, not just ‘based on,’ and the real game footage ensured that aspect, but there was something missing.”
NW: “I had a script that I really liked and my talks with Max helped me get back in the seat with making the score. Even though I knew the real music would be done to the edited film, I wanted to have different pieces to test-play for Max. I have a place in northern Honshu. It’s about 3 hours from Tokyo near beautiful Lake Towada. I was busy making music when Max called about a shift in the film’s structure.”
MM: “Jack suggested I watch AMERICAN ANIMALS a film based on a true story about a heist that incorporates the actual art thieves themselves in an interview manner intermittingly amongst the actual dramatized recreation. I thought, if we use the actual coach, captain, manager and players portrayed in our film, it would do two things, first it would reinforce that this is a true story, and secondly, I felt it would open the audience to a different manner of story telling.
NW: “It was a great concept that I jumped onboard with. It was an easy adjustment music wise, and it brought time within the film to shift the music around. I love this aspect of the storyline because we’ve all watched films that are ‘based on a true story,’ but how much of the story is actually true? This time also coincided with my business partner, Duran Duran’s Simon LeBon singing the film’s theme song. Titled, ‘The Story Of How,’ it’s a brilliant song that is so catchy it gets stuck in my head every time I play it. It was wonderful for Simon to be a part of this film. The other song I managed to secure for the film was, ‘Ue o Muite Arukō.’ Better known outside of Japan as, ‘Sukiyaki,’ it’s a recreation of the only Japanese song that went to Number 1 in America. I contracted the incredible Ichiko Aoba. Her rendition is beautiful. This is so much more than a film about sport. It’s about life and overcoming whatever’s thrown at you.”
TF: “We shot the film in Australia and Japan, with a pickup for an interview with Eddie Jones in Houston, and the same in Johannesburg for former South African rugby player, Joel Stransky. Overall, once we got finally there, the shoot went to schedule, and we went straight into post production.”
Covid
Like many projects and businesses throughout the world when Covid hit, The Brighton Miracle sat idle with an uncertain future, but the producers held firm and waited things out. Once the pandemic subsided, international sales agent, Blue Sky Media, timed the release of, The Brighton Miracle, to coincide with the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
MM: “I’m very grateful to Nick, Tim, Milissa, Dean and everybody at Blue Sky Media for the exceptional support they have given the film. I think everybody goes through a challenging time when making a film, but this project had hurdles we could have never anticipated. For Nick, Tim and myself, the process became a huge part of our lives. It’s about much more than sport. To be racially persecuted and never belong is something I can’t imagine, but rather than let this be demoralizing, Eddie Jones and Michael Leitch rose above it. Their stories are very inspiring.”
TF: “Thank you to Milissa, Dean and Richard at Blue Sky Media. As a producer on this project, it felt like we were all frantically baling water to stay afloat. It was an exceptional learning curve and one that I wouldn’t swap for anything. I’m very pleased the film will now see some well deserved light.”
THE BRIGHTON MIRACLE is available via Blue Sky Media.
Max Mannix (left) is a writer, producer and director of film and documentary who resides in Queensland, Australia. Beginning his career as an unrepresented writer, his first spec script, SUN TZU’S, THE ART OF WAR, was picked up and sold by Creative Artists Agency in 4 days after a bidding war. CAA then set up his second script, TOKYO SONATA. Returning to Australia in 2004 after living in Japan for 14 years, Max is highly acclaimed. With a deep knowledge of Japanese history, his work has won many awards including the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s, TOKYO SONATA, Best Screenwriter at the Asian Screen Awards, as well as being nominated for an International Emmy in 2017 for best mini-series for the NHK/Netflix, TOKYO TRIAL. Max has also written projects for Australia’s ABC, and has ghost written other feature films in Japan. He adapted the novel, RAINFALL, for Sony Entertainment, Japan, and directed the feature film starring Gary Oldman. A regular guest on Japan NHK’s film review program, J-FLICKS, and an inducted member of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy, Max recently wrote, co-produced and directed, THE BRIGHTON MIRACLE, and is presently co-producing and directing a documentary series based on Japanese Shogun, Ieyasu Tokugawa. Titled, SHOGUN, the series includes support from the 19th generational Tokugawa family head, and last remaining direct bloodline family member, Iehiro Tokugawa.
Nick Wood (right) is the Producer of the film “The Brighton Miracle. Nick is a prolific record producer, songwriter, musician and award –winning composer and currently the CEO of Syn studios with locations in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Beijing, Shanghai and London.
Nick Wood’s industry roots date back to his start in music production at the legendary Marcus Studio in London. At the age of 19, Wood signed with Virgin Records as the founding member of Appassionata. In the early 90’s Wood ventured into film composition, creating the score for Dream Island, a joint venture with NHK and Sony and a production by the Oscar-nominated German filmmaker Wim Wenders. He went on to score movie soundtracks including 13 Kaidan (Masahiko Nagasawa’s award-winning thriller starring Tsutomu Yamazaki), animated film To-i Umi Kara Kita Coo, RAILWAYS 2 (starring Tomokazu Miura) and Love Kills (director Mario van Peebles). Additionally Wood’s work has been featured on a variety of network television shows including licensing songs to Sex and the City and AMC’s brand theme.
Nick’s eclectic music tastes have allowed him to collaborate with such diverse artists as Bebel Gilberto, Dr. John, Chris Corner, Graham Massey, Jon Hassell, Julian Lennon, Maxi Priest, Robert Palmer, Simon Le Bon, Tetsuya Komuro and Van Dyke Parks.
Nick has other scripted projects currently in development as well as a solo album, “Uncertainty Principle” to be released soon.
