Jeremy Piven films new movie, ‘Young Warriors,’ in Memphis
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- Actor Jeremy Piven is starring in a new faith-based film called “Young Warriors,” produced by Memphis-based Gravity Productions.
- The movie follows an alcoholic podcaster whose son becomes a viral sensation after accidentally going live.
- “Young Warriors” is the latest in a series of low-budget, heartfelt films from Gravity Productions, which previously worked with actor Kevin Sorbo.
During his time on the HBO series “Entourage,” Jeremy Piven won three consecutive Emmy Awards for best supporting actor in a comedy series.
This distinction places Piven in exclusive, even extraordinary company. The others who matched this feat are Art Carney, for “The Honeymooners,” Don Knotts, for “The Andy Griffith Show,” and John Larroquette, for “Night Court.”
From 2004 to 2011, “Entourage” chronicled the often sexual and drug-fueled misadventures of a young movie star and his pack of buddies, assistants, lackeys and enablers, in the entertainment capital of the world, Los Angeles. At its height, the show attracted more than 8 million viewers per episode, according to HBO, and each season cost millions of dollars to produce.
In December, Piven was in front of the camera in a home on Forest Avenue in Midtown, in a decidedly less glamorous and luxurious context. He is the “name” actor heading the cast of “Young Warriors,” the latest project from Memphis-based Gravity Productions, a scrappy unit creating low-budget but heartfelt films for the “faith” market.
Piven plays Jon Riviera, an alcoholic sports podcaster. Other, less recognizable actors have similarly colorful roles.
“I have hallucinations,” said Los Angeles actress Alley Hermes, 30, explaining her role as Riviera’s estranged wife. “I see a character called ‘Domino.’ He has big yellow wings. I say, ‘I see dragons and big flying things.’”
Tristan Hallett, 11, of Joplin, Missouri, plays the 8-year-old son of the Piven-Hermes screen couple.
“I’m Junior, and my mom has schizophrenia and my dad is a drunk and I’m going through a lot of challenges,” Tristan said. “I break my wrist and I lean on God.”
Explaining how he got into acting, Tristan said: “I was a competitive dancer. One of the judges at a dance competition saw me and said, ‘Get that kid an agent!’”
His mother, Laurel Hallett, did just that, and now Tristan is in Memphis, working with a handful of actors from around the country and about 45 local crew members on “Young Warriors.” (It’s been an eventful year for Tristan: Earlier, he was a Grammy nominee in the category of Best Opera Recording, for his role as psychic Danny Torrance in a Lyric Opera of Kansas City production based on Stephen King’s “The Shining.”)
Written and directed by Miami-based Kevin D. Sepe, a once drug-addicted advertising executive and 1980s pop music impresario who pivoted to message filmmaking after a “born again” experience renewed his Christian faith, “Young Warriors” is the third local production in just over a year for Gravity and Harris-Sepe Films, a company formed by Sepe and Memphis entrepreneur Terry L. Harris.
In the summer, the team shot “The Jesus Broker,” a miniseries about a cryptocurrency speculator who becomes a sort of itinerant peacemaker; earlier, it completed “Elijah Peele,” with a cast that included former “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” star and conservative Christian activist Kevin Sorbo.
The story of a self-destructive rock star (Robert Malcolm Cumming) befriended by an 8-year-old terminally ill cancer patient (Evelyn Kite), “Elijah Peel” is the first of the Gravity films to land a significant theatrical distribution deal.
The movie will be released in April by Pinnacle Peak Pictures, the “American independent evangelical Christian film distribution and production studio” (to quote its website) co-founded by country singer Randy Travis. Pinnacle Peak has distributed some of the “faith” film industry’s bigger hits, including “God’s Not Dead” (2014), which cast Sorbo as an atheist college professor, and “Reagan” (2024), a biopic starring Dennis Quaid.
The Pinnacle Peak deal had a galvanizing effect on the already busy Memphis-connected filmmakers. “From a strategic perspective, on the heels of ‘Elijah Peel,’ we said, ‘Let’s get another one done,’” Sepe said.
Recognizing that the presence of Sorbo in the cast was likely a key to the distribution deal, the producers recruited another known actor, Piven, for “Young Warriors,” a script that Sepe already had more or less ready to go.
Production began Dec. 6, and is scheduled to end in early January, with Piven available for only six days. Locations used for the film will include the Memphis Botanic Garden, Idlewild Presbyterian Church, the Church Health Center in Crosstown, the Cove (the Broad Avenue bar is presented as a “speakeasy”), and the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, among others, according to veteran Memphis location manager Nicki Newburger.
The BMX track at Shelby Farms is a crucial location: In the movie, Junior is an avid dirt-track bicyclist, which is how he breaks his wrist.
According to a production synopsis of the film, Junior is at home, recuperating from his accident, when he “finds his father passed out drunk on the podcast floor.” Out of curiosity, “he sits in Jon’s podcasting chair, puts on the headset, and accidentally goes live, introducing himself to thousands of listeners. His unfiltered sweetness, honesty, and quirky sports takes instantly charm the audience — and the clip begins spreading around town.”
Junior becomes “a viral podcast sensation,” the synopsis continues, “forcing a fractured family, a struggling aunt, and a community of unlikely allies to rally together as the boy searches for stability, belonging, and the courage to reunite his parents.”
One of these allies is Junior’s best friend, played by Emmanuel Wood, 10, from Atlanta. (Emmanuel and Tristan and their mothers are sharing an Airbnb during the Memphis shoot.) Another ally is played by veteran Atlanta actress Princess Elmore, cast as what she calls a “prayerful” grandmother, following her turn as a no-nonsense nurse in “Elijah Peel.”
On a recent Thursday, the boys loitered while Piven (who told Gravity producers he did not want to be interviewed) and New York actress Lindsey Dresbach, as Junior’s aunt, filmed an intense countertop confrontation in the Forest Avenue kitchen.
Resting on a small table outside the front door of the house, Piven’s extinguished cigar awaited the actor’s return; but the actor, unlike his stogie, was hot, as the characters traded accusations. “I am not going to be your Bible teacher, pal, or your conscience,” Dresbach barked.
“Young Warriors” is the sixth project in three years from the Gravity team, headed by producers Mark Williams, Princeton James and Jordan Danelz (who also typically acts as director of photography). Three more productions are planned for 2026, Danelz said.
Many of the same crew members have worked on each film.
“The film community is very much that — community,” said Josh Beckemeyer, a camera assistant on “Young Warriors” who recently opened an equipment rental company, Pyramid Camera, to ensure that gear that sometimes has to be collected from Nashville or Atlanta would be more readily available in Memphis.
Beckemeyer said he hopes that Gravity’s production pace will inspire other made-in-Memphis projects. “We believe a rising tide lifts all boats,” he said. “Whatever the budget level, we want production to remain in Memphis.”
