INTERVIEW: The Indie Miracle of "Signing Tony Raymond": A Conversation with Executive Producer Mitch Olson

A Georgia-grown sports flick gears up for a groundbreaking national release

If there’s one thing Signing Tony Raymond proves, it’s that good things come to those who wait.

The film industry is notorious for overlooking the little guy. Though the studio system of Old Hollywood is long gone, the field is still dominated by big players. Investors tend to avoid taking chances on smaller projects and opt for familiar faces to fill seats. This weekend, sports dramedy Signing Tony Raymond is quite literally changing the game. The film is playing in over a thousand theaters nationwide, a landmark moment for indie filmmakers everywhere.

Entirely funded, filmed, and edited in Georgia, the flick follows down-on-his-luck Coach Walt McFadden’s (Michael Mosley) journey to sign the titular Tony Raymond (Jackie Kay), the most sought-after high school football player in the country. Despite his enticing NIL offer, Walt soon discovers a handful of obstacles in the end zone: competition with other recruiters, Tony’s “country crazy” family (helmed by Oscar winner Mira Sorvino and the ever-talented Rob Morgan), and more unexpected twists and turns in the Deep South. Throw in appearances from football legends Marshawn Lynch, Champ Bailey, and Brian Bosworth, and you’ve got a laugh-out-loud, feel-good adventure for sports fans and non-fans alike.

Executive Producer of Signing Tony Raymond Mitch Olson

On Wednesday, I talked with executive producer Mitch Olson about moving Signing Tony Raymond from script to screen. Olson’s been in the film and television industry for nearly two decades, starting as a creative development intern and quickly making his way into various writers’ rooms around Los Angeles. “I've worked on major things. I've worked on small things. I've worked on everything in between,” Olson shared. “I’m a creative. I don’t think I could do anything else.” Nowadays, he teaches at Kennesaw State University (KSU) and runs Point South Productions, a local indie company that helped give life to Signing Tony Raymond.

Writer-director Glen Owen spent nearly sixteen years bringing the film to fruition, a journey Olson joined in 2018 whilst rewiring KSU’s screenwriting program. “I wanted to build a community board of local, active industry professionals that could consult on what type of curriculum and graduates they would like to see, so that students were prepared for the industry on the other side and hirable to those types of folks,” Olson recounted. “Glen happened to be one of those people.” Owen had built a career in high-ticket commercials (Mercedez-Benz and Heinz, to name a few) but was looking to shift into narrative projects. A former UGA basketball player, he shared one of his scripts—then-titled Signing Day—with Olson, a lifelong athlete. As lovers of sports and sports movies, the duo decided to get to work. Unfortunately, after two years of development, they only encountered closed doors. “Everyone thought it was really touching, really heartwarming, and really well-written,” Olson shrugged. “It checked all the boxes, but nobody wanted it because it didn't have the ‘So What?’ factor.”

Fast forward to 2021: in a controversial decision, the NCAA announced that they would finally allow collegiate athletes to make money off their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Owen and Olson saw the news as a greenlight to dust off the script and return to the drawing board. “That changed the entire landscape of the movie,” Olson explained. “When NIL happened and we injected that into the script, that gave it the social relevancy and the ‘So What?’ factor. The first person we sent it to after the NIL revision invested almost $2 million in the movie.”

As one of the first (if not, the first) narrative films to address the new NIL policies, Signing Tony Raymond certainly stands out from its contemporaries. However, Olson stressed that they didn’t want to stray too far from the feel of classic sports flicks like Blue Chips, The Sandlot, and Any Given Sunday. “These are the movies that I grew up with and hold very dear to my heart that really convinced me that I want to be in this business. We were remaking a tale as old as time, but we didn’t want to reinvent the genre,” he emphasized. “We wanted to appeal to the people who already like the genre, but one thing that we wanted to do was make it less about the sport and more about the people.” Olson cited Sam Raimi’s For Love of The Game as a key reference for this vision. The film stars Kevin Costner as a baseball player recounting moments from his life as he pitches the final game of his career. It’s a sports movie through and through, but it takes a deeper focus on the lives of the athletes beyond the field.

With a fresh new script and wind in their sails, it was finally time to start making Signing Tony Raymond—that is, until 2023’s WGA strike...and the SAG-AFTRA strike...and production delays. Like Walt in his journey to sign Tony, Olson said that the crew remained hopeful despite every challenge and setback:

"Every inch of this has been just a bloody, sweaty, don’t-take-no-for-an-answer endeavor. Luckily, we have a team of people that is very perseverant [...] and we all have a mentality that all of our ships are going to rise together. Because of that, we all paddle in the same direction. And it's really hard to get a group of people to paddle in the same direction, especially for six years.”

The team’s steadfast dedication paid off. In October 2025, Signing Tony Raymond finally premiered at the Austin Film Festival (AFF). For first-time filmmakers, this was a massive accomplishment, but the good news didn’t stop there. Right before AFF, they signed a distribution deal. After years of hard work, it appeared that the movie is hitting theaters at just the right time. A “Wild West” playoff season has put college football at the forefront of everyone’s minds, and as fans eagerly await Monday’s championship game, Signing Tony Raymond serves as the perfect way to get your fix over the weekend. “There’s a part of me that wished it would’ve happened faster, but I also think that if it had happened two years ago, it would not have the same impact that it does now.” Olson reflected. “People are paying attention in a way that I don’t think they would’ve two years ago.”

I was lucky enough to catch an opening night screening of Signing Tony Raymond, and I can safely say it’s an utter delight. The film is a quintessentially Southern story, in both its message, medium, and making—in Olson’s words, “football is the South, and the South is football.” The region and its inhabitants have historically been negatively stereotyped onscreen, but this film makes a conscious effort to portray the Deep South with care and complexity. Olson reiterated that they didn’t want the characters to feel like caricatures and that Owen intentionally developed a “vibrant and heavenly” color palette to capture the beauty of Tony’s tiny hometown.

With its charming blend of heart and humor, Signing Tony Raymond is sure to make its mark on the sports genre. The second and third act deliver a well-crafted success story—but not in the way you might expect. Sorvino’s performance as Tony’s mother Sandy is particularly excellent, offering a thought-provoking portrayal of women’s mental health in an area without resources. When asked what he thought viewers would most enjoy, Olson immediately responded with any Marshawn Lynch moment. The former running back’s appearances garnered plenty of laughs in my screening, and you can tell that Lynch had just as much fun filming his scenes as audiences will have watching them.

Not only does Signing Tony Raymond represent a monumental achievement for Georgia film and indie film, but Olson states that even the slightest hint of success could trigger landslide change in the film industry at large. “What we're doing is quite unique, given its star power and marketability. You couldn't do this with any other indie drama [...], but if it works, we can repeat it in a different fashion with any genre.” The current film world presents a myriad of troubles, including theater closures, artificial intelligence, and Hollywood’s own recruitment race as studios compete for ownership of Warner Brothers. Olson takes an optimistic approach, arguing that these events will trigger a new wave of artist autonomy:

"I think we're going to be entering into an indie auteur era. [...] I think people are finding out that they have ownership over their voice, and they should be able to get it out there. I think what people are going to start realizing is that there's opportunity to make high-quality, original content outside of the system that is currently prohibiting them from doing so. I think what you're gonna find is a necessary recalibration of creative process and creative cost and creative execution. I think you're going to find that the people who are nimble and flexible and willing to work and do things that may be a little bit outside of the box are going to be the ones that emerge in this next iteration of what entertainment's going to look like, which is straight-to-consumer.”  

It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but Signing Tony Raymond is here and ready to shine. In all his years of experience, Olson is well aware this doesn’t happen every day: “It’s a miracle to get a movie made. It’s a miracle to get a movie to release in theaters. It’s an insurmountable miracle that an indie movie gets in theaters.” In addition to its stellar cast, witty jokes, and inspiring message, the sheer, magical impossibility of this film’s existence is reason enough to witness this joy-filled, heartfelt tale of family, following your heart, and, of course, football.

Signing Tony Raymond is in theaters now. Purchase your tickets here.