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Page 2 of 2 Kurtz said he spent eight months working with Reeve to write a script that deals with family relationships and -- as the old baseball adage goes when a hitter is in a slump -- that tells kids to "keep on swinging" when facing adversity. "That was really the message he wanted to relate -- that you never quit," Kurtz said of Reeve's vision for the project. The screenwriter said he would show up to work at Reeve's home, and the director would present ideas and notes for just about every page of the script. The pair would laugh at funny parts, and when the dialogue or plot would veer toward becoming overly sentimental, Reeve would bring it back down to Earth, Kurtz recalled. "The chair, the paralysis, it all disappeared and it became two creative guys telling a story about a boy who wouldn't quit," said Kurtz. When Reeve died, his wife stepped in as an executive producer, and Daniel St. Pierre and Colin Brady went on to direct the finished movie. Producer Tippe said any changes that were made always stayed true to the original story Reeve championed. "There is no question the movie up on screens is the vision he laid down," Tippe said. "His focus was to make that movie in one way or another, and we pursued that no matter what."
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