With Baldwin Wallace University faculty, friends and fans in the audience, filmmaker Steven Caple Jr. '10 gave his hometown an advance look at "Creed II" and, in a post-screening talk, spoke about the experience of stepping into the big shoes of directing a legacy Hollywood franchise.
Caple, who is in the midst of a worldwide marketing tour for the eighth film in the Rocky saga, asked that his hometown be included as a stop.
In his director talkback following the Cleveland screening, he shared fond memories of his time in northeast Ohio and at BW. He also sang the praises of the big-name stars he worked with in "Creed II," including creator and star Sylvester Stallone, Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson.
"Creed
II"
is
just
the
second
feature
film
directing
effort
for
Caple,
who
earned
a
B.A.
in
film
studies
and
marketing
in
2010
and
went
on
to
graduate
school
at
the
prestigious
University
of
Southern
California
School
of
Cinematic
Arts.
His
first
feature,
2016's
"The
Land,"
earned
critical
acclaim
after
debuting
at
the
Sundance
Film
Festival.
A story for The Plain Dealer traces Caple's Cleveland roots. In "The contender from CLE: Director Steven Caple Jr. battles for a Hollywood title with 'Creed II,'" writer Andrea Simakis notes the "heart" that Caple works to instill in all his films, even in his early work at BW.
One
example
is
a
short
film,
"Hush
Little
Baby,"
which
features
"a
young
single
mother
in
the
inner
city
[who]
goes
in
search
of
money
to
buy
a
battery
for
her
hearing
aid
to
experience
the
sound
of
her
baby's
voice."
"There is a real love that seems to come through his work, a love of people and the reality that they endure, that explains their humanity," BW professor Joe Tarantowski told the paper.
Tarantowski, who attended the "Creed II" screening at the Cinemark Valley View, credits Caple's drive with propelling his career forward.
"As an undergraduate at BW, he was just very productive outside the classroom," Tarantowski says. "He didn't wait for a class assignment to produce a film. He was always creating something just to work out ideas in his free time. When he finished school, I discovered many saved projects that were never turned in for a grade."
"I've got a lot of his early stuff," Tarantowski told The Plain Dealer. "Someday we'll have a film festival."
Read more about the Creed II advance preview in a wrap-up by Andrea Simakis on cleveland.com.
