Rick
Wershe still hasn’t heard from the Michigan Parole Board on whether they will
consider a parole from his life sentence in a non-violent drug case. Meanwhile,
the cameras are rolling on a film based on his story.
They didn’t have time to get to his case at their monthly
meeting. That’s the story coming from the Michigan Parole Board, which was
supposed to consider moving forward on the process of granting Richard J.
Wershe, Jr. parole after 29 years in prison for a non-violent drug crime
committed when he was a teenager.
They were supposed to consider the Wershe case at the March
10th meeting of the Michigan Parole Board. But gosh darn it all,
they just ran out of time, they say. So, they’ll take it up next month at their
monthly meeting on April 14th.
Telling it like it is, the Parole Board is under pending court
pressure because Wershe has been treated differently than every other Michigan inmate
charged with a non-violent drug crime as a juvenile. Every one of them has been
given parole consideration—except Rick Wershe. That’s cruel and unusual punishment
under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Richard J. Wershe, Jr. (Photo: Michigan Dept. of Corrections) |
Wershe has several cases against the State of Michigan cooking in federal courts.
In addition, media interest in his case has been growing,
aided in no small part by the fact Hollywood has discovered the Rick Wershe
story and they are making a movie about it.
But appearances count in politics and public agencies and
the Michigan Parole Board don't want to appear to be succumbing to pressure.
So…Rick Wershe continues to wait to hear about a possible parole.
***
They love Rick Wershe in Cleveland. More specifically, the
Greater Cleveland Film Commission and a growing community of film production
professionals in Cleveland love Rick Wershe because the movie about him is
being filmed there. Production is now underway. Why Cleveland? Why not Detroit,
where the story occurred?
It's all about money. States vie for movie projects these days with tax incentives and financial rebates.The State of Ohio and the City of
Cleveland are working to attract Hollywood feature productions through
financial incentives for the filmmakers.
The State of Michigan, in its wisdom, decided not to compete in the film production arena.
In the summer of 2015, Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill to end Michigan’s incentive program for film productions. The program was bringing in about $225 million annually in Michigan spending by movie companies. Apparently, that was chump change to Lansing. The state opted instead to give billions of dollars in tax incentives to the Big Three automakers to please, please, please build new factories in Michigan and, oh please, oh pretty please, don’t take the money, create temporary jobs and later replace the human workers with robots.
The State of Michigan, in its wisdom, decided not to compete in the film production arena.
In the summer of 2015, Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill to end Michigan’s incentive program for film productions. The program was bringing in about $225 million annually in Michigan spending by movie companies. Apparently, that was chump change to Lansing. The state opted instead to give billions of dollars in tax incentives to the Big Three automakers to please, please, please build new factories in Michigan and, oh please, oh pretty please, don’t take the money, create temporary jobs and later replace the human workers with robots.
And there’s no point talking about the millions upon
millions in tax incentives heaped on billionaire pro sports team owners to
build yet another new stadium or arena where they can suck up even more
millions from the entertainment-starved locals. But I digress.
The bottom line, to use an overworked phrase, is Cleveland and Ohio offered a 30% incentive to shoot the film there. Detroit and Michigan offered 2%. You don't have to be a math whiz to figure out where the movie people decided to take their business.
Ivan Schwarz, president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland
Film Commission, says Rick Wershe has, in a way, helped the economy of his
city.
"Millions of dollars are going to be spent in our
state, creating jobs and creating economic development for a city that really
needs it,” Schwarz told me. “It’s sort of ironic that his War on Drugs story
turns out to be an economic boon for the film industry in Ohio.”
Schwarz says Ohio, like several other states, is actively
courting Hollywood to shoot movies in their cities and countryside and, he
argues, giving the production companies tax and rebate packages pays dividends.
"(The White Boy Rick film has) a significant budget
with significant talent that is shooting in this state and creating real jobs
and putting real food on people’s tables," Schwarz says. "Really,
that’s what it’s about. The trickle down is huge.”
Alas, political pooh-bahs of Michigan don’t see it that
way, so the cameras are rolling in Cleveland.
Matthew McConaughey (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) |
Matthew McConaughey has the starring role in the movie as
Rick Wershe’s father, Richard Wershe, Sr.
Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie (Photos: Wikimedia Commons) |
Veteran actor Bruce Dern will play the part of Rick Wershe’s
grandfather and actress Piper Laurie has the role of his grandmother. Wershe’s
father and grandparents are deceased.
Others in the cast include Rory Cochrane and Jennifer Jason
Leigh as FBI agents.
Rory Cochrane and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Photos: Wikimedia Commons) |
Cochrane was in Argo,
Dazed and Confused and Black Mass.
Jennifer Jason Leigh received an Oscar nomination for her role in The Hateful Eight. Early in her career
she appeared in Fast Times at Ridgemont
High.
Leigh is known to have been in contact recently with
retired FBI agents who were assigned to Detroit during the time Rick Wershe was
a paid teen informant. She’s made an effort to research the role, asking
questions that will help her bring authenticity to the screen.
R.J. Cyler (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) |
R.J. Cyler, the Blue Power Ranger in the Power Rangers movie, recently signed to play the role of Rudell "Boo" Curry, the youngest brother of the family drug gang Rick Wershe infiltrated and informed on for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Rick Wershe was recruited by the FBI to become a secret
informant because he was known and trusted by the Curry Brothers, a cocaine
gang with political connection that had attracted the attention of federal
investigators.
Wershe had a most unusual visitor recently. Matthew
McConaughey, the actor, spent close to five hours visiting with Wershe at the
Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee, where he is serving his prison term.
McConaughey was accompanied by Scott Franklin, the movie’s
producer and Yann Demange, the director.
Wershe says it was a get-acquainted visit. They talked and
laughed and shared personal stories. They are about the same age but they are,
as Wershe observes, from two different worlds. He was impressed with
McConaughey’s interest in playing the role and he marveled that the Hollywood
star was “super down to earth.”
“It made me feel great about him playing my father,” Wershe
told me. “Funny thing is, me and my Dad always loved him as an actor. I only
wish I could tell him that Matthew is playing him, but who knows? Maybe he’s
looking down from up there.”
What about the other inmates? How did they feel about a movie star visiting Oaks prison?
“There was a buzz, but nothing big,” Wershe says. “They
just thought it was cool that he took the time to come see me.”
Wershe appreciated the response of the prison staff, too.
He says everyone behaved professionally and no one pestered McConaughey for
autographs or posed pictures.
He doesn’t say so, but you can tell Rick Wershe is
impressed and moved by all of this high-wattage attention. But the most
important attention of all will come from the Parole Board, presumably next
month.
***
Full disclosure: I was hired early in the movie production
process by Studio 8, the outfit making the White Boy Rick film, to advise one
of the script writers about factual matters regarding Detroit, the Detroit
Police Department, city politics and the like. I did not get involved in any of
the script writing. My brief role was what might be called an historical
adviser.
Currently I am hard at work on a non-fiction book about the
Rick Wershe saga and how it fit in to the War on Drugs in the 1980s. There were
national and international forces and events that had an effect on what
happened to Rick Wershe. I intend to tell that tale.