ST. LOUIS — Less than a year ago, there was no budget or resources to make a Hollywood movie based on St. Louis native John O’Leary’s life, but now, it is coming to fruition as filming for “On Fire” began Monday in Maplewood.
The movie will tell the story of O’Leary, who was burned on 100% of his body at age nine in a house fire. Turning his story into a movie based on his 2016 best-selling book, “On Fire: 7 choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life,” has been a seven-year journey, according to O’Leary.
Starring William H. Macy, John Corbett, Joel Courtney, Devon Franklin and Stephanie Szostak with Sean McNamara as the director, “On Fire” will transition back and forth between O’Leary as a child and as an adult.
“This has been a shocking ride to have assembled this crew,” O’Leary said. “There is a huge support team of about 80 people on the ground supporting the filming.”
“And then there’s this wonderful group of actors who are going to step into the roles of real life individuals who made a big difference in the life of a little boy and his family.”
As a born and raised St. Louisan, filming is taking place at O’Leary’s old stomping grounds, including Busch Stadium, St. Louis University, among other locations. He currently lives in his hometown with his wife Beth and their children.
O’Leary’s life-changing experience of when he caught his house and himself on fire as a young boy will be recreated in the same home where it happened in the late 1980s in which his parents still live.
“It’s a remarkable thing, and to know that not only did it happen and it's being portrayed in the exact same manner that it happened, but it's also being filmed in the exact same house where it happened,” O’Leary said.
“It’s just so redemptive that this idea of a story that was so tragic in 1987 is now being told to celebrate the very best of life,” O’Leary said.
On Monday, filming began at Saratoga Lanes in Maplewood, which was where he used to hang out with his friends in college.
While O’Leary “used to have a little bit too much fun in college,” he said there are several scenes that show what he was like and scenes that unmask his behaviors while “trying to cover up the scars.”
Most of the filming will take place in St. Louis over the next seven weeks with some shots happening around the state, including the Missouri State Penitentiary, where O’Leary once gave a speech.
“This film would not have been shot in St. Louis without a lot of folks working very hard in Jefferson City to put back into place a tax credit that allows films to be shot in Missouri,” he said.
“We are putting people who live in Missouri back to work and I’m excited not only for ‘On Fire’ to be shot here, but for this to open up a floodgate for other feature films to be shot in our backyard as well.”
Original plans called for three quarters of the film to be shot in Vancouver and only 25% in St. Louis, Executive Producer Terry Schnuck told Spectrum News.
McNamara and others connected to the project have ties there, in addition to lower production costs due to the exchange rate and a tax credit program to induce production in British Columbia.
Schnuck said McNamara came here to meet O’Leary and “fell in love with St. Louis,” but “what put him over the top” was final passage of the Show MO Act, which reinstated a tax credit program to encourage production of motion media production projects in Missouri.
On a project budgeted at just under $10 million, Schnuck said it could be eligible for at least $2 million in tax credits which will then be sold to a bank.
“On Fire” is believed to be the first new project that will be eligible for the tax credits, which Schnuck said is a point of pride for both the creative and business sides of the project and helped in pitching to investors.
“It was actually a piece of legislation that did what it’s supposed to do,” Schnuck said. “It’s a St. Louis story. John O’Leary lived here all his life … This is the place where the film should be shot. It would be a good spiritual boost for the St. Louis region.”
Mary Kay Sheets, co-founder of St. Louis Film Works, a nonprofit advocacy organization said O’Leary and those connected to his recovery “are part of the St. Louis community making it almost a character in and of itself,” and that the incentives mean hundreds of jobs and revenue for dozens of other industries per production.
“St. Louis has its serious issues, but this amazing story shines a much needed bright light on what is special about it too,” she said.
O’Leary hopes “On Fire” will be an inspiration to viewers of who they can become in their own lives.
“There are so many movies out today that are either fiction or they celebrate heroism in the form of guys wearing tights and capes,” he said. “And this movie portrays heroes in the form of people who have the job titles of mom and dad, and nurse, and radio announcer, and ordinary folks going through life.”
“We shine a bright light on real life and real love and what it looks like to live that going forward in our lives,” O’Leary added.
With the movie underway, O’Leary said one of the biggest highlights so far was being in the same room with 80 professionals working on the film, including the director, assistant director, the boom operators, coordinators and more.
“All of these job titles that you see at the end of movies, and you wonder who all of those people are and what are they all doing. And here they were all assembled in St. Louis to create this movie and to really make this story shine,” he said.
“Just to be a fly on the wall in that meeting was remarkable.”
The second biggest highlight was a live read through of the movie that took place in St. Louis with all of the actors.
“To hear their voice and the tone that they use, and the way they play off one another, and the way they look into one another’s eyes, and even in a live read, it was remarkable,” O’Leary said.
“You’re never really sure if the thing is going to work until it’s done, but after hearing the live read and the buzz that was in that room, this thing is going to work incredibly well, so that was extremely exciting.”