Here is the most current info on 'Turn The River' directed and written by Chris Eigeman.
It will be released this May. There is going to be a screening on April 20 in NYC then released in May. The following I posted here a few months back. I hope the added info is a help.
I will be glad to let you all know about "Turn The River". My name is John "JJ"Juback and I am an actor by profession and played pool all my life except for the last 10 years of hardly getting to a table. I have a great part in 'Turn'. I was also Famke Janssen's pool teacher and advisor to the director Chris Eigeman for creating the pool shots etc, etc.
I was happy to recommend Tony Robles for the part he plays when the director/writer re-wrote one of the parts. Jude Rosenstock was going to play the part before it was changed because it was a very different type of character(this is very common in the film business). As we all know these are two really great guys and players and I was glad to do it.
I have played pool for many years and grew up playing at the Clifton Billiard Lounge when Ray Martin was owner and was winning his 3 World Championships. Because of my work situation my pool game has all but disappeared over the years. I have tried to stay in touch with it and thankfully while my game has suffered the knowledge is still there.
"Turn The River" was shot about 18 months ago. It is not a movie that is about pool but has a lot of pool in it. Tony has a small part as a pool hustler and I have been told he's very good. The movie was just shown in the Hampton Film Festival and got an award for screenplay and Famke Janssen who plays the lead character got an award for acting.
Here briefly is the story: it's about a woman who is a blue collar type person who plays cards, pool, likes to gamble and drinks a bit. She finds out her son who is about 13ish is getting beat up by her ex-husband. She lost custody years back because of the drinking and gambling. She comes up with a plan to win a bunch of money to buy fake ID/passports and a car and split with her son to Canada. The son is all for it. She then plays cards and a bunch of pool to get the money. I play a lawyer who plays very strong pool and gambles high. Almost all the pool stuff is with Fanke and me. I won't tell you how it turns out but I hope you all go see it. I will say that Famke shoots every shot she is supposed to shoot herself and for someone who knew only a bit about pool she is amazing.
Not only is 9-ball played but also alot of One Pocket (mostly the offensive shot making and run-out parts, some but not a lot of safety play cause its just to slow for a film).
From what I was told the producers could have gone with a low level distributer when it was first finished but decided to gamble and go the festival route with hopes of getting a better distribution deal. The awards they just got should help.
If you all have any questions fire away. I've been posting and reading and learning stuff here for a few years and it's an amazing site.
All the best,
JJ
