To celebrate the screening of their new film, Resurrecting the Champ, Teri Hatcher, Josh Hartnett and Alan Alda enjoyed a festive dinner at the Heineken Green Room in Park City. Resurrecting the Champ recounts the story of a hapless sports reporter (Hartnett), grappling with the longevity of his career. Unable to transition from the boxing beat to a more sensational arena, the reporter stumbles upon the career opportunity of a lifetime when he discovers that a former boxing champ (Samuel L. Jackson), who was long thought to be dead, is alive. To see highlights from the party, see photos above.

More about Resurrecting the Champ

For all his ambition, Erik (Josh Hartnett) is a Denver sports reporter fast on his way to being yesterday's news. His writing lacks personality and his editor, Metz (Alan Alda), is unwilling to pull him off the boxing beat. To make matters worse, his personal life is down for the count. Recently separated from his wife, Erik tries to maintain his good standing with their young son. When he rescues a homeless man, "the champ," from some local hoods, he learns that the destitute man is actually a former boxing champion believed to be long dead, and it appears that Erik has stumbled onto a knockout story.

Rod Lurie proves that he is an intricate storyteller here, discovering in the material a range of complex emotions and poignancy. Bolstered by subtle performances from Hartnett and Jackson, the film asks what it means to be a man, not a champ. It grapples with relationships between fathers and sons and taps into a core component of masculine self-deception—an urge to misrepresent. Hamstrung by his own sense of failure, Erik tries so hard to appear special in his son's eyes that he lies about being friends with star athletes. But in befriending the champ, who has his own burdens, Erik takes steps to come to terms with his family, the ghost of his father, and his own capacity for forgiveness.

Screenwriters : Allison Burnett and Michael Bortman and Rod Lurie, based on the LA Times magazine article by J.R. Moehringer
Executive Producers : Arnold W. Messer, Bradley J. Fischer, Louis Phillips, Frederick Zollo
Producers : Bob Yari, Marc Frydman, Rod Lurie, Mike Medavoy
Cast : Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Hartnett, Teri Hatcher, Kathryn Morris, Rachel Nichols, Alan Alda

Rod Lurie
Rod Lurie wrote and directed the Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated political thriller The Contender. The film was honored by the Broadcast Film Critics Association with the first-ever Alan J. Pakula Award. Lurie also directed the military prison thriller The Last Castle and created and was an executive producer of the ABC television series Commander in Chief. Also for ABC, he executive-produced the one-hour FBI drama Line of Fire. Lurie made his writing and directing debut in 1998 with the dramatic short film Four Second Delay.