Leslie K. Barry's Blog, page 4
September 17, 2020
NJ.COM/Star Ledger: Newark Minutemen Movie will tell story of Jewish boxers who fought Nazis in America
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2020...
By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Photo Tagline
A group of Jewish boxers from Newark teamed up with the mob and the FBI to go undercover and fight Nazis in America.
Sound like a movie?
It will be. But it’s also history.
The true story of these boxers, known as the Newark Minutemen, is headed to Hollywood.
Leslie K. Barry’s upcoming novel “Newark Minutemen” has been optioned by Fulwell 73, the production company behind “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” Variety reports.
Barry’s book, due out Oct. 6 (Morgan James Publishing), is inspired by her Uncle Harry, who was a Newark Minutemen boxer in the 1930s, before World War II. Jewish mob boss Abner “Longie” Zwillman, who has been called the Al Capone of New Jersey, recruited the boxers to work with the FBI.
The author consulted her family and FBI reports in order to write the story, which follows a Jewish boxer as he goes undercover during the Great Depression to thwart a shadow Nazi Party in the U.S. as Hitler becomes more powerful in Europe.
Barry, who lives near San Francisco, is set to speak about her book Wednesday at a Zoom event for West Orange’s JCC MetroWest.
She didn’t know anything about this part of her uncle’s history until her mother’s 90th birthday, when her family started reminiscing. In a virtual chat hosted by the Newark Public Library, Barry said that when he came home with bruises, his mother used to ask where he’d been.
“I was out beating up the Nazis," he’d say.
At the time, Barry didn’t realize there were any Nazis living in America in the 1930s.
While “Minutemen” is a novelistic take on the true story, it’s also set in the very real history of American Nazism. The German American Bund, an American Nazi organization, had a significant presence in New Jersey, including but not limited to Bund halls and youth camps in Andover in Sussex County, Griggstown in Somerset County and Riverdale in Morris County (see video below). Members paraded down streets in Newark and New York.
In 1939, months before the start of World War II, the Bund, headed by German-born U.S. citizen Fritz Kuhn, held a rally at Madison Square Garden. Barry’s uncle, the inspiration for “Minutemen,” won the Golden Glove Boxing Championship at the Garden during the same era. In the ’30s, some Americans favored staying neutral on Hitler, with figures like aviator Charles Lindbergh taking an isolationist stance on involvement in the war.
At the Bund rally, Kuhn talked about “the Jewish-controlled press” and advocated for a “white gentile-ruled United States.”
Archival footage of the event can be seen in Marshall Curry’s film “A Night at the Garden," which was nominated for best documentary short at the 2019 Academy Awards (Curry grew up in Summit). At the time of the rally, Hitler was finishing construction on his sixth concentration camp. Mass killings of Jews began less than two years later. Curry noted the parallels between the 1939 event and the recent surge in white supremacist rhetoric, as seen at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. White supremacists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue marched with tiki torches saying, “Jews will not replace us.”
John Niven (“How to Build a Girl") and Nick Ball (“Cat Run”) are writing the screenplay for the movie based on Barry’s book about the Minutemen.
" ‘Newark Minutemen’ is an epic story of battles, boxers and Mafia, overlaid with an explosive love affair that compares with the classic star-crossed stories from ‘Casablanca’ to ‘Titanic,’” producer Leo Pearlman told Variety. “This would be an important story to tell at any time in history, but right now, with the lessons we can learn from the past, it is an essential one that everyone should see.”
Other stories about Jews, Jewish Americans and Americans fighting back against Nazis have come to TV and film in 2020 and in recent years. They include works of fiction — alternate histories like Amazon’s “The Man in the High Castle” (based on the 1962 novel by Philip K. Dick) and HBO’s “The Plot Against America,” the Newark-set limited series from David Simon (“The Wire”) based on the 2004 book from Newark’s Philip Roth. “Hunters,” a Nazi revenge drama with a comic book tone, also debuted on Amazon this year (both “The Plot Against America” and “Hunters” filmed in Newark and North Jersey).
“Newark Minutemen” author Leslie K. Barry will speak at a public Zoom event for JCC MetroWest at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16. Viewers can register here.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Send a coronavirus tip here.
By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Photo Tagline
A group of Jewish boxers from Newark teamed up with the mob and the FBI to go undercover and fight Nazis in America.
Sound like a movie?
It will be. But it’s also history.
The true story of these boxers, known as the Newark Minutemen, is headed to Hollywood.
Leslie K. Barry’s upcoming novel “Newark Minutemen” has been optioned by Fulwell 73, the production company behind “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” Variety reports.
Barry’s book, due out Oct. 6 (Morgan James Publishing), is inspired by her Uncle Harry, who was a Newark Minutemen boxer in the 1930s, before World War II. Jewish mob boss Abner “Longie” Zwillman, who has been called the Al Capone of New Jersey, recruited the boxers to work with the FBI.
The author consulted her family and FBI reports in order to write the story, which follows a Jewish boxer as he goes undercover during the Great Depression to thwart a shadow Nazi Party in the U.S. as Hitler becomes more powerful in Europe.
Barry, who lives near San Francisco, is set to speak about her book Wednesday at a Zoom event for West Orange’s JCC MetroWest.
She didn’t know anything about this part of her uncle’s history until her mother’s 90th birthday, when her family started reminiscing. In a virtual chat hosted by the Newark Public Library, Barry said that when he came home with bruises, his mother used to ask where he’d been.
“I was out beating up the Nazis," he’d say.
At the time, Barry didn’t realize there were any Nazis living in America in the 1930s.
While “Minutemen” is a novelistic take on the true story, it’s also set in the very real history of American Nazism. The German American Bund, an American Nazi organization, had a significant presence in New Jersey, including but not limited to Bund halls and youth camps in Andover in Sussex County, Griggstown in Somerset County and Riverdale in Morris County (see video below). Members paraded down streets in Newark and New York.
In 1939, months before the start of World War II, the Bund, headed by German-born U.S. citizen Fritz Kuhn, held a rally at Madison Square Garden. Barry’s uncle, the inspiration for “Minutemen,” won the Golden Glove Boxing Championship at the Garden during the same era. In the ’30s, some Americans favored staying neutral on Hitler, with figures like aviator Charles Lindbergh taking an isolationist stance on involvement in the war.
At the Bund rally, Kuhn talked about “the Jewish-controlled press” and advocated for a “white gentile-ruled United States.”
Archival footage of the event can be seen in Marshall Curry’s film “A Night at the Garden," which was nominated for best documentary short at the 2019 Academy Awards (Curry grew up in Summit). At the time of the rally, Hitler was finishing construction on his sixth concentration camp. Mass killings of Jews began less than two years later. Curry noted the parallels between the 1939 event and the recent surge in white supremacist rhetoric, as seen at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. White supremacists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue marched with tiki torches saying, “Jews will not replace us.”
John Niven (“How to Build a Girl") and Nick Ball (“Cat Run”) are writing the screenplay for the movie based on Barry’s book about the Minutemen.
" ‘Newark Minutemen’ is an epic story of battles, boxers and Mafia, overlaid with an explosive love affair that compares with the classic star-crossed stories from ‘Casablanca’ to ‘Titanic,’” producer Leo Pearlman told Variety. “This would be an important story to tell at any time in history, but right now, with the lessons we can learn from the past, it is an essential one that everyone should see.”
Other stories about Jews, Jewish Americans and Americans fighting back against Nazis have come to TV and film in 2020 and in recent years. They include works of fiction — alternate histories like Amazon’s “The Man in the High Castle” (based on the 1962 novel by Philip K. Dick) and HBO’s “The Plot Against America,” the Newark-set limited series from David Simon (“The Wire”) based on the 2004 book from Newark’s Philip Roth. “Hunters,” a Nazi revenge drama with a comic book tone, also debuted on Amazon this year (both “The Plot Against America” and “Hunters” filmed in Newark and North Jersey).
“Newark Minutemen” author Leslie K. Barry will speak at a public Zoom event for JCC MetroWest at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16. Viewers can register here.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Send a coronavirus tip here.
September 9, 2020
Variety: Newark Minutemen,’ Novel Set During Rise of Hitler, Optioned by Fulwell 73 (EXCLUSIVE)
‘Newark Minutemen,’ Novel Set During Rise of Hitler, Optioned by Fulwell 73 (EXCLUSIVE)
By Brent Lang
Newark Minutemen
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/ne...
Leslie K. Barry’s upcoming novel “Newark Minutemen” has been optioned by Fulwell 73, the independent production company behind “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” John Niven and Nick Ball are attached to pen the screenplay.
“Newark Minutemen” is based on an incredible true story. It centers on a Jewish boxer who goes undercover for the mob and FBI to fight fascism in New Jersey during the Great Depression. His mission takes place as a substantial portion of the American public was pushing neutrality as Hitler consolidated power in Europe. In this chaotic time, he joins the Newark Minutemen, a band of other Jewish boxers, who rose up to fight a Nazi shadow party that was emerging in the States. The novel is based on the real-life experiences of author Leslie K. Barry’s uncle, a Newark Minuteman boxer, and was pieced together from first-hand accounts from her 93-year old mother and her cousin, FBI reports, boxes of undercover source material and years of research.
“Newark Minutemen” will be released in paperback by Morgan James Publishing on October 6, 2020. Fulwell 73’s Leo Pearlman led on the acquisition and will executive produce the feature film.
“’Newark Minutemen’ is an epic story of battles, boxers and mafia, overlaid with an explosive love affair that compares with the classic star-crossed stories from Casablanca to Titanic,” said Pearlman. “This would be an important story to tell at any time in history, but right now, with the lessons we can learn from the past, it is an essential one that everyone should see.”
Barry said she sold Fulwell 73 the rights to the film because Pearlman connected to the material on a personal level.
“When we were talking about the novel, Leo and I started sharing stories about our grandmothers and their plights in London and America,” said Barry. “He understood the story and its importance on a level that made me trust his sensibility.”
Niven wrote the screenplays for “How to Build a Girl” and “Kill Your Friends,” the latter of which was based on his novel. Niven and Ball previously worked together as screenwriters on “Cat Run,” starring Paz Vega.
Barry is a screenwriter, author and executive producer, who has worked at Turner Broadcasting, Hasbro/Parker Brothers, Mattel, Mindscape Video Games, Lotus and AOL.
Pearlman recently served as an executive producer on “Auschwitz Untold: In Colour,” the acclaimed Channel 4 documentary which featured newly colorized footage taken in Nazi concentration camps alongside brand new testimony from Holocaust survivors. Fulwell 73 produced the documentary.
Fulwell 73’s future projects include the upcoming “Friends” reunion and “Cinderella” starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, and Pierce Brosnan.
In March 2017 James Corden joined the company as a fifth full partner alongside Pearlman, brothers Gabe and Ben Turner, and Ben Winston.
Niven and Ball are repped by Artists First.
By Brent Lang
Newark Minutemen
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/ne...
Leslie K. Barry’s upcoming novel “Newark Minutemen” has been optioned by Fulwell 73, the independent production company behind “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” John Niven and Nick Ball are attached to pen the screenplay.
“Newark Minutemen” is based on an incredible true story. It centers on a Jewish boxer who goes undercover for the mob and FBI to fight fascism in New Jersey during the Great Depression. His mission takes place as a substantial portion of the American public was pushing neutrality as Hitler consolidated power in Europe. In this chaotic time, he joins the Newark Minutemen, a band of other Jewish boxers, who rose up to fight a Nazi shadow party that was emerging in the States. The novel is based on the real-life experiences of author Leslie K. Barry’s uncle, a Newark Minuteman boxer, and was pieced together from first-hand accounts from her 93-year old mother and her cousin, FBI reports, boxes of undercover source material and years of research.
“Newark Minutemen” will be released in paperback by Morgan James Publishing on October 6, 2020. Fulwell 73’s Leo Pearlman led on the acquisition and will executive produce the feature film.
“’Newark Minutemen’ is an epic story of battles, boxers and mafia, overlaid with an explosive love affair that compares with the classic star-crossed stories from Casablanca to Titanic,” said Pearlman. “This would be an important story to tell at any time in history, but right now, with the lessons we can learn from the past, it is an essential one that everyone should see.”
Barry said she sold Fulwell 73 the rights to the film because Pearlman connected to the material on a personal level.
“When we were talking about the novel, Leo and I started sharing stories about our grandmothers and their plights in London and America,” said Barry. “He understood the story and its importance on a level that made me trust his sensibility.”
Niven wrote the screenplays for “How to Build a Girl” and “Kill Your Friends,” the latter of which was based on his novel. Niven and Ball previously worked together as screenwriters on “Cat Run,” starring Paz Vega.
Barry is a screenwriter, author and executive producer, who has worked at Turner Broadcasting, Hasbro/Parker Brothers, Mattel, Mindscape Video Games, Lotus and AOL.
Pearlman recently served as an executive producer on “Auschwitz Untold: In Colour,” the acclaimed Channel 4 documentary which featured newly colorized footage taken in Nazi concentration camps alongside brand new testimony from Holocaust survivors. Fulwell 73 produced the documentary.
Fulwell 73’s future projects include the upcoming “Friends” reunion and “Cinderella” starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, and Pierce Brosnan.
In March 2017 James Corden joined the company as a fifth full partner alongside Pearlman, brothers Gabe and Ben Turner, and Ben Winston.
Niven and Ball are repped by Artists First.
September 2, 2020
Fulwell 73 Options Feature Rights for Leslie K. Barry novel Newark Minutemen
Based on a true story, the upcoming book covers the underground fight against the 1930s German-American Nazi Party and the Jewish boxers who went undercover for the mob and the FBI; Leo Pearlman to Executive Produce
London, UK (September 1, 2020): Acclaimed independent production company Fulwell 73 (The Late Late Show with James Corden, Carpool Karaoke, Class of ‘92, I Am Bolt) has optioned the feature film rights to Leslie K. Barry’s novel Newark Minutemen, which will be released in paperback by Morgan James Publishing on October 6, 2020. Fulwell 73’s Leo Pearlman led on the acquisition and will executive produce the feature film project, with John Niven and Nick Ball attached to write the screenplay.
Newark Minutemen is based on the incredible true story from the 1930s about a Jewish boxer who goes undercover for the mob and FBI to fight fascism in New Jersey during the Great Depression. It was a time when America remained complacent as Hitler spread racial hatred in Europe, and his fanatics could brashly goose-step down American streets waving twin Swastika and US flags, led by Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn. The Newark Minutemen were a band of Jewish boxers who rose up to fight this Nazi shadow party and, perhaps the greatest enemy of all, American complacency about this looming evil.
The novel is based on the real-life experiences of author Leslie K. Barry’s uncle, a Newark Minuteman boxer. The story was pieced together from first-hand accounts from Barry’s 93-year old mother and her cousin, FBI reports, boxes of undercover source material and years of research.
“Newark Minutemen is an epic story of battles, boxers and mafia, overlaid with an explosive love affair that compares with the classic star-crossed stories from Casablanca to Titanic,” said Leo Pearlman, Partner and Producer at Fulwell 73. “This would be an important story to tell at any time in history, but right now, with the lessons we can learn from the past, it is an essential one that everyone should see."
When Barry was selling rights to the screenplay, she had been in discussions with various companies, but turned to Fulwell 73 because she and critically acclaimed producer Leo Pearlman connected on a familial level.
“When we were talking about the novel, Leo and I started sharing stories about our grandmothers and their plights in London and America,” said Leslie K. Barry, author of Newark Minutemen. “He understood the story and its importance on a level that made me trust his sensibility.”
Barry is a screenwriter, author and executive producer. Previous professional positions have included executive roles at Turner Broadcasting, Hasbro/Parker Brothers, Mattel, Mindscape Video Games, Lotus and AOL. She lives in Tiburon, CA.
Pearlman recently served as an executive producer on Fulwell 73 project Auschwitz Untold: In Colour, the acclaimed Channel 4 documentary which featured newly colourised footage taken in Nazi concentration camps alongside brand new testimony from Holocaust survivors.
Niven is best known for his debut novel Kill Your Friends, which he subsequently adapted into a feature film for StudioCanal starring Nicholas Hoult. Niven also co-wrote How to Build a Girl with Caitlin Moran, a film based on Moran’s memoirs starring Beanie Feldstein. Niven and Ball have previously worked together as screenwriters on 2011 comedy action film Cat Run, starring Paz Vega. Niven and Ball are repped by Artists First.
Fulwell 73 is an international and award-winning film and TV production company who have been behind some of the most talked about non-scripted programmes of the last few years, from Carpool Karaoke to BAFTA-winning Bros: After The Screaming Stops and the upcoming Friends reunion. Now expanding further into the scripted space, Fulwell 73 is currently in production on a number of major projects including: motion picture Cinderella starring Camila Cabello; is set to start shooting on CW commissioned series Republic of Sarah in Montreal in the coming months and recently announced it has optioned the rights to Helen Cresswell’s beloved time-traveling novel Moondial to adapt into a new TV franchise scripted by Matt Lopez (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Race to Witch Mountain).
Read more about Leslie K. Barry’s novel Newark Minutemen here.
Facebook Newark Minutemen Twitter @NMinutemen
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, Bookshop
For more information including interviews with Leslie K. Barry contact: owen@thoughtgangmedia.com
About Fulwell 73:
Fulwell 73 recently announced a multiplatform deal with Nickelodeon to produce an animated movie and TV series based on the children’s book Real Pigeons Fight Crime, and this Summer/Autumn is expected to resume production on studio feature film Cinderella for Sony Pictures, based on an original idea from James Corden, written and directed by Kay Cannon, starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, Pierce Brosnan and many more.
Other recent television productions include Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer and Jack Whitehall’s Sporting Nation for BBC, Quibi’s Cup of Joe, the hit documentary Bros: After the Screaming Stops for BBC, Drop the Mic for TBS, Sounds Like Friday Night for BBC1, Carpool Karaoke: The Series for Apple, Sunderland ‘Til I Die for Netflix, and the hit Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special for BBC One.
Fulwell 73, set up in 2005 by lifelong friends Ben Winston, Leo Pearlman, Ben Turner and Gabe Turner, produces and creates top-quality, commercial television, feature and digital productions. In March 2017 James Corden joined the company as a fifth full partner.
The company first came to the public’s attention in September 2007 with the release of its debut feature In the Hands of the Gods (Lionsgate). The film received great critical acclaim, opened on more screens than any other UK-made documentary and appeared in cinemas around the world.
Since then Fulwell’s theatrical film releases include: the most successful sports documentary of all time, The Class of 92 (Universal Pictures); the huge box office hits One Direction 3D: This is Us (Sony/Columbia), I Am Bolt (Universal) and critically acclaimed and award winning independent features such as The Guvnors (Metrodome).
Fulwell is currently in production on their first studio feature film Cinderella for Sony Pictures, based on an original idea from James Corden, written and directed by Kay Cannon, starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, Pierce Brosnan and many more.
Fulwell 73’s television slate is extensive. As producer of multi Emmy and Critics Choice award winning, The Late Late Show with James Corden, with CBS Television Studios, Fulwell has dominated the digital space with over 7 billion views since their launch in 2015.
Other television productions include the hit documentary Bros: After the Screaming Stops for BBC, Drop the Mic for TBS, Sounds Like Friday Night for BBC1, Carpool Karaoke: The Series for Apple, Sunderland ‘Til I Die for Netflix, and the hit Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special for BBC One.
Fulwell 73 prides itself in making shows with some of the top music and sports talent in the world, making broadcast specials for Bruno Mars, Harry Styles, Sam Smith, and producing feature documentaries with the likes of David Beckham and Usain Bolt. Recent documentaries include Busby, about the legendary player and Manchester United manager Matt Busby, Hitsville: The Making of Motown and Auschwitz Untold: In Colour. Fulwell also produced Global Citizens live event from South Africa with Beyoncé, Jay Z and Oprah. They have also produced "Stand Up To Cancer" and will do so again this year.
Fulwell 73 also creates compelling and widely seen short form content. From commercials for high profile brands including Keurig, Apple Music, Samsung, to new shows for digital platforms such as YouTube (Jack Whitehall’s Training Days) and Snapchat (The Emmy winning "James Corden’s Next James Corden”). Their music videos have won them 3 “video of the year” Brit awards and an MTV moonman.
http://www.fulwell73.com
London, UK (September 1, 2020): Acclaimed independent production company Fulwell 73 (The Late Late Show with James Corden, Carpool Karaoke, Class of ‘92, I Am Bolt) has optioned the feature film rights to Leslie K. Barry’s novel Newark Minutemen, which will be released in paperback by Morgan James Publishing on October 6, 2020. Fulwell 73’s Leo Pearlman led on the acquisition and will executive produce the feature film project, with John Niven and Nick Ball attached to write the screenplay.
Newark Minutemen is based on the incredible true story from the 1930s about a Jewish boxer who goes undercover for the mob and FBI to fight fascism in New Jersey during the Great Depression. It was a time when America remained complacent as Hitler spread racial hatred in Europe, and his fanatics could brashly goose-step down American streets waving twin Swastika and US flags, led by Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn. The Newark Minutemen were a band of Jewish boxers who rose up to fight this Nazi shadow party and, perhaps the greatest enemy of all, American complacency about this looming evil.
The novel is based on the real-life experiences of author Leslie K. Barry’s uncle, a Newark Minuteman boxer. The story was pieced together from first-hand accounts from Barry’s 93-year old mother and her cousin, FBI reports, boxes of undercover source material and years of research.
“Newark Minutemen is an epic story of battles, boxers and mafia, overlaid with an explosive love affair that compares with the classic star-crossed stories from Casablanca to Titanic,” said Leo Pearlman, Partner and Producer at Fulwell 73. “This would be an important story to tell at any time in history, but right now, with the lessons we can learn from the past, it is an essential one that everyone should see."
When Barry was selling rights to the screenplay, she had been in discussions with various companies, but turned to Fulwell 73 because she and critically acclaimed producer Leo Pearlman connected on a familial level.
“When we were talking about the novel, Leo and I started sharing stories about our grandmothers and their plights in London and America,” said Leslie K. Barry, author of Newark Minutemen. “He understood the story and its importance on a level that made me trust his sensibility.”
Barry is a screenwriter, author and executive producer. Previous professional positions have included executive roles at Turner Broadcasting, Hasbro/Parker Brothers, Mattel, Mindscape Video Games, Lotus and AOL. She lives in Tiburon, CA.
Pearlman recently served as an executive producer on Fulwell 73 project Auschwitz Untold: In Colour, the acclaimed Channel 4 documentary which featured newly colourised footage taken in Nazi concentration camps alongside brand new testimony from Holocaust survivors.
Niven is best known for his debut novel Kill Your Friends, which he subsequently adapted into a feature film for StudioCanal starring Nicholas Hoult. Niven also co-wrote How to Build a Girl with Caitlin Moran, a film based on Moran’s memoirs starring Beanie Feldstein. Niven and Ball have previously worked together as screenwriters on 2011 comedy action film Cat Run, starring Paz Vega. Niven and Ball are repped by Artists First.
Fulwell 73 is an international and award-winning film and TV production company who have been behind some of the most talked about non-scripted programmes of the last few years, from Carpool Karaoke to BAFTA-winning Bros: After The Screaming Stops and the upcoming Friends reunion. Now expanding further into the scripted space, Fulwell 73 is currently in production on a number of major projects including: motion picture Cinderella starring Camila Cabello; is set to start shooting on CW commissioned series Republic of Sarah in Montreal in the coming months and recently announced it has optioned the rights to Helen Cresswell’s beloved time-traveling novel Moondial to adapt into a new TV franchise scripted by Matt Lopez (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Race to Witch Mountain).
Read more about Leslie K. Barry’s novel Newark Minutemen here.
Facebook Newark Minutemen Twitter @NMinutemen
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, Bookshop
For more information including interviews with Leslie K. Barry contact: owen@thoughtgangmedia.com
About Fulwell 73:
Fulwell 73 recently announced a multiplatform deal with Nickelodeon to produce an animated movie and TV series based on the children’s book Real Pigeons Fight Crime, and this Summer/Autumn is expected to resume production on studio feature film Cinderella for Sony Pictures, based on an original idea from James Corden, written and directed by Kay Cannon, starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, Pierce Brosnan and many more.
Other recent television productions include Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer and Jack Whitehall’s Sporting Nation for BBC, Quibi’s Cup of Joe, the hit documentary Bros: After the Screaming Stops for BBC, Drop the Mic for TBS, Sounds Like Friday Night for BBC1, Carpool Karaoke: The Series for Apple, Sunderland ‘Til I Die for Netflix, and the hit Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special for BBC One.
Fulwell 73, set up in 2005 by lifelong friends Ben Winston, Leo Pearlman, Ben Turner and Gabe Turner, produces and creates top-quality, commercial television, feature and digital productions. In March 2017 James Corden joined the company as a fifth full partner.
The company first came to the public’s attention in September 2007 with the release of its debut feature In the Hands of the Gods (Lionsgate). The film received great critical acclaim, opened on more screens than any other UK-made documentary and appeared in cinemas around the world.
Since then Fulwell’s theatrical film releases include: the most successful sports documentary of all time, The Class of 92 (Universal Pictures); the huge box office hits One Direction 3D: This is Us (Sony/Columbia), I Am Bolt (Universal) and critically acclaimed and award winning independent features such as The Guvnors (Metrodome).
Fulwell is currently in production on their first studio feature film Cinderella for Sony Pictures, based on an original idea from James Corden, written and directed by Kay Cannon, starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, Pierce Brosnan and many more.
Fulwell 73’s television slate is extensive. As producer of multi Emmy and Critics Choice award winning, The Late Late Show with James Corden, with CBS Television Studios, Fulwell has dominated the digital space with over 7 billion views since their launch in 2015.
Other television productions include the hit documentary Bros: After the Screaming Stops for BBC, Drop the Mic for TBS, Sounds Like Friday Night for BBC1, Carpool Karaoke: The Series for Apple, Sunderland ‘Til I Die for Netflix, and the hit Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special for BBC One.
Fulwell 73 prides itself in making shows with some of the top music and sports talent in the world, making broadcast specials for Bruno Mars, Harry Styles, Sam Smith, and producing feature documentaries with the likes of David Beckham and Usain Bolt. Recent documentaries include Busby, about the legendary player and Manchester United manager Matt Busby, Hitsville: The Making of Motown and Auschwitz Untold: In Colour. Fulwell also produced Global Citizens live event from South Africa with Beyoncé, Jay Z and Oprah. They have also produced "Stand Up To Cancer" and will do so again this year.
Fulwell 73 also creates compelling and widely seen short form content. From commercials for high profile brands including Keurig, Apple Music, Samsung, to new shows for digital platforms such as YouTube (Jack Whitehall’s Training Days) and Snapchat (The Emmy winning "James Corden’s Next James Corden”). Their music videos have won them 3 “video of the year” Brit awards and an MTV moonman.
http://www.fulwell73.com
August 22, 2020
Read around the world
— Newark Minutemen (@NMinutemen) August 20, 2020
August 5, 2020
From Casablanca to Newark Minutemen: Timeless love triangles
Like the timeless Casablanca, Newark Minutemen pits star-crossed lovers against a world ripped apart. Both follow irresistible anti-heroes who struggle in a love triangle and risk their lives to fight fascism and racial prejudice.
In the love triangle of Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart must choose between keeping Ingrid Bergman, the love of his life, or sending her away with her resistance leader husband. Likewise, in Newark Minutemen, the Jewish boxer Yael, falls in love with the daughter of his enemy, a leader of the German-American Nazi Bund. Her engagement to a German-Nazi is meant to cement the American and German alliance and confirms that she is from the world that wants to see him disappear.
In both Casablanca and Newark Minutemen, the reader hears the beats of angry men echoing against the beats of fallen hearts.
In the love triangle of Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart must choose between keeping Ingrid Bergman, the love of his life, or sending her away with her resistance leader husband. Likewise, in Newark Minutemen, the Jewish boxer Yael, falls in love with the daughter of his enemy, a leader of the German-American Nazi Bund. Her engagement to a German-Nazi is meant to cement the American and German alliance and confirms that she is from the world that wants to see him disappear.
In both Casablanca and Newark Minutemen, the reader hears the beats of angry men echoing against the beats of fallen hearts.
July 26, 2020
Newark Minutemen: A Reader's Guide
A Reader’s Guide
Newark Minutemen by Leslie K. Barry
Set between the Great wars in 1930s Newark, New Jersey, Newark Minutemen layers a star crossed love affair doomed for failure over the backdrop of a country ripped apart by economic turmoil of the Great Depression.
Leslie K. Barry’s richly imagined based-on-true novel begins in 1933 America at the triple bewitching hour of Hitlers reign, FDRs presidency and the dusk of prohibition. Through the eyes of the character, the reader looks on as the young protagonist, Yael Newman, witnesses his father branded with a Swastika by German American Nazis at the Newark bootlegging docks.
The perspective then changes to the young German Immigrant Krista Brecht who watches her father burn down a bookstore in Newark as he beats his uniformed chest.
At the time, Americans were divided between a socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. The fascist activities were often dangerous and manipulative but government’s hands were tied by first amendment rights. As a result, most Americans ignored marchers and rallies. What Depression-struck Americans had not realized was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America many years before Germany had fired a bullet to begin WW2.
With a self-proclaimed American HItler at the helm, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in New York, the Reich created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells in every American city and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. Later, the FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis.
Finally the FBI approached the Jewish mafia, one of the few factions during the depression with money and power. The G-men engaged the mafia to join in an unholy alliance to help thwart the rising Nazi party.
The most promising weapon for the mafia was a band of Jewish boxers in Newark, NJ. They were managed by the enchanting Mob King, Longie Zwillman who was often referred to as the Gatsby of gangsters. The Newark Minutemen trained to fight the Nazis taking over America. They were called up at a moments notice to topple rallies and infiltrate the German-American Bund.
In the story, the reader then joins Yael five years after his traumatic experience. In a life driven by avenge, tempered by justice, he joins the Newark Minutemen. During one of the fights he knocks into Krista Brecht, the daughter of a German-American Nazi high command. Their paths cross again and he and his sidekick Harry Levine take Krista and her sister on a night to remember. The tension between their worlds turns from innocent into an explosive rumble and vendetta between the Minutemen and a gang of young American Nazis.
As a romance between Yael and Krista form, the world pulls them apart. At the most basic level, Yael struggles against a life of racism. Further, Krista’s world wants Yael’s people dead. Coming full circle, Yael is recruited to go undercover and bring down the German-American Bund and it’s leader. Then he learns the gut-wrenching truth about who killed his father. In a twist, Krista's identity spirals when she learns her own truths.
In Newark Minutemen Leslie K. Barry writes with a historical sweep and intimacy that are skillfully combined through four character’s narrations—Yael, Krista, gangster Longie Zwillman and Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn. Through different voices, the reader gains perspective from all sides, creeping empathy into uncomfortable places. As the novel explores the convulsive collision of history and romance, readers take a chilling look at devastating events that were occurring in America, including the greatest enemy of all—complacency.
Questions for Discussion
The discussion questions that follow are designed to enliven your group's discussion of Leslie K. Barry’s extraordinary new novel, Newark Minutemen.
1. What effects does Barry achieve by blending personal history and historical fact?
2. Why has this history buried in American history? Why has it never been told?
3. What is the effect of the story beginning and ending with the the same moment of Presidents Day 1939?
4. How would the world be different if Fuhrer Kuhn and the German American Bund had achieved their objectives?
5. How does Yael reconcile accepting someone who is supposed to be his mortal enemy? How does Krista deal with her identity during the impending relationship?
6. What are the most difficult images in the story? Physical? Emotional?
7. How do you feel about the Yael’s journey of avenge? What are the moral complexities of right and wrong in this story?
8. What motivates Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn? What makes home charismatic to his followers? What makes Longie Zwillman charismatic? How are these two alike and different?
9. In what ways are Longie and the mafia heroic? How do they respond to the crises? How are they able to bring their community together?
10. What do the historical details and cameos of the story add?
11. Much is at stake in Newark Minutemen— the fate of America's minorities especially Jews, the larger fate of Europe and of Western civilization, but also how America will define itself. What does the novel suggest about what it means to be an American, and to be a Jewish American?
12. What does the flashforward to the end of ww2 add to the novel?
13. Hatred is timeless. What is relevance in this story to hatred in society today?
Newark Minutemen by Leslie K. Barry
Set between the Great wars in 1930s Newark, New Jersey, Newark Minutemen layers a star crossed love affair doomed for failure over the backdrop of a country ripped apart by economic turmoil of the Great Depression.
Leslie K. Barry’s richly imagined based-on-true novel begins in 1933 America at the triple bewitching hour of Hitlers reign, FDRs presidency and the dusk of prohibition. Through the eyes of the character, the reader looks on as the young protagonist, Yael Newman, witnesses his father branded with a Swastika by German American Nazis at the Newark bootlegging docks.
The perspective then changes to the young German Immigrant Krista Brecht who watches her father burn down a bookstore in Newark as he beats his uniformed chest.
At the time, Americans were divided between a socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. The fascist activities were often dangerous and manipulative but government’s hands were tied by first amendment rights. As a result, most Americans ignored marchers and rallies. What Depression-struck Americans had not realized was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America many years before Germany had fired a bullet to begin WW2.
With a self-proclaimed American HItler at the helm, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in New York, the Reich created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells in every American city and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. Later, the FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis.
Finally the FBI approached the Jewish mafia, one of the few factions during the depression with money and power. The G-men engaged the mafia to join in an unholy alliance to help thwart the rising Nazi party.
The most promising weapon for the mafia was a band of Jewish boxers in Newark, NJ. They were managed by the enchanting Mob King, Longie Zwillman who was often referred to as the Gatsby of gangsters. The Newark Minutemen trained to fight the Nazis taking over America. They were called up at a moments notice to topple rallies and infiltrate the German-American Bund.
In the story, the reader then joins Yael five years after his traumatic experience. In a life driven by avenge, tempered by justice, he joins the Newark Minutemen. During one of the fights he knocks into Krista Brecht, the daughter of a German-American Nazi high command. Their paths cross again and he and his sidekick Harry Levine take Krista and her sister on a night to remember. The tension between their worlds turns from innocent into an explosive rumble and vendetta between the Minutemen and a gang of young American Nazis.
As a romance between Yael and Krista form, the world pulls them apart. At the most basic level, Yael struggles against a life of racism. Further, Krista’s world wants Yael’s people dead. Coming full circle, Yael is recruited to go undercover and bring down the German-American Bund and it’s leader. Then he learns the gut-wrenching truth about who killed his father. In a twist, Krista's identity spirals when she learns her own truths.
In Newark Minutemen Leslie K. Barry writes with a historical sweep and intimacy that are skillfully combined through four character’s narrations—Yael, Krista, gangster Longie Zwillman and Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn. Through different voices, the reader gains perspective from all sides, creeping empathy into uncomfortable places. As the novel explores the convulsive collision of history and romance, readers take a chilling look at devastating events that were occurring in America, including the greatest enemy of all—complacency.
Questions for Discussion
The discussion questions that follow are designed to enliven your group's discussion of Leslie K. Barry’s extraordinary new novel, Newark Minutemen.
1. What effects does Barry achieve by blending personal history and historical fact?
2. Why has this history buried in American history? Why has it never been told?
3. What is the effect of the story beginning and ending with the the same moment of Presidents Day 1939?
4. How would the world be different if Fuhrer Kuhn and the German American Bund had achieved their objectives?
5. How does Yael reconcile accepting someone who is supposed to be his mortal enemy? How does Krista deal with her identity during the impending relationship?
6. What are the most difficult images in the story? Physical? Emotional?
7. How do you feel about the Yael’s journey of avenge? What are the moral complexities of right and wrong in this story?
8. What motivates Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn? What makes home charismatic to his followers? What makes Longie Zwillman charismatic? How are these two alike and different?
9. In what ways are Longie and the mafia heroic? How do they respond to the crises? How are they able to bring their community together?
10. What do the historical details and cameos of the story add?
11. Much is at stake in Newark Minutemen— the fate of America's minorities especially Jews, the larger fate of Europe and of Western civilization, but also how America will define itself. What does the novel suggest about what it means to be an American, and to be a Jewish American?
12. What does the flashforward to the end of ww2 add to the novel?
13. Hatred is timeless. What is relevance in this story to hatred in society today?
