I Hope You Dance is a song that won the Billboard Magazine Award for most performed song in America amongst numerous other major awards (Grammy, CMA, etc.). The # 1 hit was performed by Lee Ann Womack.
Spencer Proffer and Mark Wolper are producing a $10M indy feature on the ethos and sensibility of the hit classic, I HOPE YOU DANCE. Its illuminating and hopeful message will be woven through our feature, reflecting the theme of overcoming adversity with grace and humanity, with heart and humor too.
Our film uses the framework of an extraordinary circumstance, twins born of a duplicitous surrogate, adopted by two different couples - both sets of parents unaware of the other child until a fateful day when the truth is revealed. One of the boys is autistic, one is not. The film deals with the reunited brothers relationship as well as the parents coming to terms with the startling differences among the sameness. Lives are altered forever and the song plays a seminal role in the healing.
Over the years, this song has become an anthem for high school graduations, weddings and other life milestones. Now, it's illuminating and hopeful message will be woven through our feature film.
We are casting name, accomplished actors and surrounding them with cameos from the music world in acting roles. We will make an important/poignant film in the spirit of and demographically aligned to films such as Kramer vs Kramer and Rainman - which our screenwriter, Ron Bass who received an Academy Award for that, wrote.
Using the hit song as the emotional touchstone of the film, I HOPE YOU DANCE introduces audiences to an upper-class family coping with their child's Asperger's Syndrome. As a high-functioning autistic child, their son has trouble interacting on a social level. He plays piano but only one song - I HOPE YOU DANCE since it speaks to his vision of life.
For a sports-obsessed dad and a mom with a drive to be "perfect", this reality proves challenging to accept. A tantalizing glimpse of what "normal" looks like comes when they discover their son has a twin brother, unaffected by Asperger's, being raised by a lower-income family (who were clients of the same surrogate, and were illegally given the twin infant).
The families try to share custody of the second son, but issues identifiable to all audiences - guilt, envy and pride - cloud the relationship between the two families. What no adults can see, amid the bickering, is the way these two brothers actually serve to complete one another. Despite being very different, they each have something to offer the other. They are better together than apart. Only when the adults have used both legal and illegal means to covet the "normal" child, do they finally realize what has been in front of them the whole time - they are no longer two families, but ONE family, each with individual strengths and weaknesses, each with something to offer and something to gain through a shared relationship. Through this lesson, they share custody of both brothers, learning powerful lessons about the true nature of love and family.
From the time the song/record were released to multi-platinum success years ago, to when Oprah Winfrey featured the gift book of lyrics on her show { 2.7 Million copies to date}, this work has become an American classic message of hope, self empowerment and joy to millions. When one Googles the title, they will see the song is used in all forms of celebratory events from the Nobel prize ceremony, theme for the NY Firefighters, weddings, memorials and even therapies to help those in need of spiritual and faith lifts.
I Hope You Dance
Feature Film
I Hope You Dance Co-Writer Mark D. Sanders and Producer, Spencer Proffer at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.