Soul Surfer to Film at Turtle Bay

bethany-fashionIt is the story of a lifetime. The long-awaited major feature motion picture of our generation where Rocky Balboa meets Blue Crush. The movie “Soul Surfer”, featuring the life triumph of Bethany Hamilton, has reached an agreement to film at Turtle Bay Resort.

“Some film people in Hawaii said this film would never be made,” said Dutch Hofstetter, the film’s founding producer. Yet through Mr. Hofstetter’s perseverance, Soul Surfer is here and at a budget of nearly ten million dollars it represents Hawaii’s biggest budget film thus far for 2009.

Members of the Soul Surfer creative team include a long list of talent with strong ties to Hawaii and to Turtle Bay Resort. Sean McNamara will be the director. The script is written by Michael Berk, Deborah Schwartz, Douglas Schwartz and Sean McNamara.

The film is based on Bethany Hamilton’s best selling book and real life story about her attack by a shark in 2003 on Kauai’s North Shore that left her without her left arm. The movie will artfully cover the dramatic events of the attack but will also feature the ultimate personal drama of her phenomenal recovery and comeback to become one of the top professional surfers in the world and an example of empowerment to women all over the world.

soul-surfer-teamSoul Surfer will be another fine addition to a long list of films and television shows based at Turtle Bay Resort that started with Hawaii Five-O and Magnum P.I. and have gone on to include Baywatch, North Shore, Las Vegas, LOST, Knight Rider, The Hills, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Like in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Turtle Bay Resort will appear as “itself” in Soul Surfer as the home of a NSSA Surf Contest (not much of a stretch since we had an NSSA tournament here just a few months ago).

Photo top left: Bethany Hamilton
Photo bottom right: l to r, Deborah Schwartz, Douglas Schwartz, Sean McNamara, Tiffany Hofstetter and Dutch Hofstetter

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Movies & Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Soul Surfer to Film at Turtle Bay”

  1. Boogie Board Says:

    That sounds way awesome. This is something I am really looking forward to it.

  2. Hannah Says:

    I met Dutch today and he introduced me to this film. I am so excited for this amazing story to be filmed, especially at Turtle Bay! What an awesome idea. Thank you to all of those who are making it happen!

  3. Shnarf Says:

    OMG I LOVE U BETHANY

  4. Tweets Coming In About Movie Role For Carrie with Dennis Quaid!!!!!!!! Says:

    [...] Movies filmed at Turtle Bay. There is a 10 Million Dollar Budget for the movie. Here is the link Soul Surfer to Film at Turtle Bay | Turtle Bay Resort Blog Reply With Quote [...]

  5. CarrieFan2008 Says:

    So excited that Carrie Underwood is going to be in this movie!!! Shes awesome!!! God Bless both Bethany & Carrie!!

  6. Cosmin Says:

    Indeed I can hardly wait to see it.It’s a must, it will be a super movie

  7. Celebrity News Aggregator Says:

    {What can I say?|What else is there to say?|I think} I {really|kinda|sorta} like Carrie

  8. Latosha Quercia Says:

    Good posting, thanks a lot!

Leave a Reply