From Page to Screen: The Making of ‘Will to Win’

SPEAKER 03 : 0:00

welcome to the good news with angie austin now with the good news here’s angie hello there friend angie austin here with the good news speaking with jim stovall and we are talking about his winners wisdom column this week titled will to win oh i need some of that will right now jim how are you i am doing great and uh you I’m, you know, working on a house with my husband and all our kids. It’s funny because it’s, we’re all in there like painting together. And it’s just, I always wanted the sister until I heard my two daughters go at it about, why is she doing the trim? And how come I have to do the ceiling? And she takes more union breaks and I should make more per hour because I’m a harder worker. And I’m like, oh my gosh, they should be a show. And then my son, like he’s 20, right? He knows how to push their buttons. And then one of them said that one of them goes he knows how to push my buttons and we’re like but you’re so like you’re so into it like you’re you’re like here are my buttons please push them so I can get mad it’s like a comedy of errors with my in-laws my mother my mother you know my all my kids my husband my brother was up there so it’s pretty funny it’s a lot of work

SPEAKER 01 : 1:17

Yeah, it’s kind of like all-in-the-family home improvement or something.

SPEAKER 03 : 1:20

Yes, yes, yes. It was, yes, very funny. All right, so Will to Win, you’re turning Will to Win into a major motion picture, and what, this is the 10th book to become a film, if I recall correctly?

SPEAKER 01 : 1:36

Yes, it is. Hard to believe, but yeah, this is the 10th time I’ve had one of my books turned into a movie, and we are… As we speak, about halfway through the process. Wow. We’ve been filming up in Vancouver, Canada for over a month up there, and then just moved everybody down here, and we’ll be about a month here. And then we’ll spend the rest of the summer here. you know, post-production editing, putting the music in and all that stuff. And then hopefully sometime next year at a, at a screen or a theater near you, there will be a will to win movie.

SPEAKER 03 : 2:18

And Will Rogers, he, I know died in a plane crash in 1935. So how is Will being played? Cause I think this is pretty fascinating for you to tell.

SPEAKER 01 : 2:30

Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. This is one of my homecoming historicals. It, fifth or sixth novel i’ve written about uh… you know, historical figures. And at the namesake of their school, the modern-day kids get involved with them. And in this one, it’s Will Rogers High School, and it’s a baseball theme. And there’s a young lady who wanted to be on the softball team, but they canceled the team due to budget constraints. And she decides, I’m going to go play baseball with the guys. And it’s based on a true story, a young lady down in Texas who, Did this and it caught my attention and I thought this would make a great story. Will Rogers was probably the most famous person of his time. There’s likely no one alive today as famous as Will Rogers was. in the 1930s. He, he had a daily radio show, a daily newspaper column. He was on Broadway. He was in movies. He did everything. And, uh, people didn’t have the access to all the things they have now. So Will was everywhere. And, uh, This movie, Angie, has been one of the hardest of the films I’ve made to get to the screen. We were ready to go in 2021, and then COVID shut us down, and you have to release everybody and start over, and schedules aren’t workable, so you’ve got to get new people, and Then we were ready a couple years ago, and the Screen Actors Guild went out on strike. Oh, my goodness. So we had to do it again. And I thought, this is terrible. But as the good book reminds us, all things work together for good. During the strike, the studio released the new Indiana Jones film. and Harrison Ford was playing that part again. And the film came out, and I said, hold it, how old is he? Well, he’s 81 years old, and in the movie, he’s 30-something. So I called the studio and said, okay, how’d you do that? And they said, well, we used some of his old things in computer regeneration and AI. We just turn him into this version of himself. So I said, can I do that with movies Will Rogers made in 1934, 1935? And they said, we don’t know because those are old, scratchy, black and white movies. But with a lot of amazing talent and work, they did it. So when you go see Will to Win, it will be Will to Win starring Will Rogers as Will Rogers. And the actors that are in the movie are playing with the real Will Rogers. You know, it’s really amazing and one of the best utilizations of the technology. I’ve never used it to do any of my writing, and I’m not taking actors’ jobs. We’re continuing to use real human beings. But in this one case, the technology allows him to really be there, and the Rogers family is ecstatic about it. And it’s really, truly amazing.

SPEAKER 03 : 5:34

That is neat that they gave you permission and that they’re excited about it as well. I’m curious, when your real actors are acting with the AI Will Rogers, I guess, the Will Rogers who is actually his old footage per se created into him, do they interact with another actor or are they listening? How does that work? Are they actually standing by someone who stands in for Will?

SPEAKER 01 : 6:04

Great question. There is a guy named Tom Orr that for the last 25 years has been all over the world doing one-man shows where he plays Will Rogers. And we have hired him to do that part to be the stand-in for Will in the movie. So the actors that are there are really interacting with Will. You know, an actor who plays Will Rogers, but then in post-production, they take him out and put in the real Will Rogers. So it’s a win-win deal for everybody, and you’re right, it’s very, very hard to interact with. when there’s not really someone there or when it’s not the right guy, you know. And I’m getting ready to do my little part this week. I’ve done, in all of my movies, I always have a cameo in the films based on my novels. This has the baseball theme I told you, so I will be the umpire. Batter up and strike one, ball two, all that stuff. And we’ll be doing that. And the director is a fairly famous guy, Sean McNamara, who did the Reagan film and Soul on Fire he had out last year, which was a big hit. He said, now, Jim, you’re going to be working on a green screen, so this is tough. You’ve got to imagine there’s a whole stadium here full of people, and there’s a pitcher and a catcher, and you’re really doing this. And it’s not easy to pretend. And I said, you’re forgetting you’re talking to a blind guy. I mean, I said, Sean, I’m pretending you’re standing there talking to me right now. So nobody better than me than making this stuff up. So, you know, I think I’ll be the umpiring Yankee Stadium or something. I don’t know. But we will do that this week. And I’m looking forward to it. I’ve written 60 some odd books, and they have reached tens of millions of people, but it pales in comparison to a successful movie. I’m convinced that if William Shakespeare or the Apostle Paul or Mark Twain were alive today… In addition to writing, they’d be making movies because the movies just reach so many people in a deeper way than even a book does because they remember those scenes. I have stood at arena events where I speak, you know, 15,000 people in an arena. And I’ll say, Toto, I don’t think we’re, and they’ll say, in Kansas anymore. Or Dirty Harry, go ahead, and you hear 15,000 people say, make my day. And I have several examples of that. Then I remind the audience, not one of those movies have been in a theater in the last 30 years. And you remember every one of those things. And it’s just impactful that way at a level that is hard to get anywhere else.

SPEAKER 03 : 8:59

Have you thought about doing these limited series or series or anything like that based on any of your books? I think of that mom that followed on your first movie and getting kids together to do projects to make a difference, young people. that that would really be a good follow-up or different episodes following different people doing some of those projects. You can explain that if you want, but that’s what I see as a series.

SPEAKER 01 : 9:33

20 years ago. She was a single mom. She took her two teenage boys to see the movie, and then they read the book and decided they were going to do ultimate gift projects, volunteer projects in their community, because that was the name of the book and the movie. And a couple other single moms and their boys got involved, and they started a little club in Dallas called the Young Men’s Service League. And it’s grown to today… There are 168 chapters in 39 states. And this past school year, we had 11,000 boys doing a volunteer year in their community helping someone out. And so I wrote a book about it called Giving the Ultimate Gift. And they’re the hero. I’m not. I mean, I asked for 100 boys to write an essay. What did you do? Who did you help? And how did it impact you? And I took them and I put in commentary and wrote this book, Giving the Ultimate Gift. And, yes, there has been discussion of a documentary or even an action film based on that because it’s one of those things. I mean, if it hadn’t happened, nobody would believe it. Right. And, you know, the guy from the New York Times, when he heard about it and did the story, he said, wow, you’re very humble about this. So he said, I got a lot to be humble about. I didn’t do anything. I mean, I wrote a book. These moms and their boys, they’re the heroes. And when you read the stories in Giving the Ultimate Gift, some of the things these boys did, it’s just truly amazing. Right. and how much it impacted them. So, yeah, I think that would make a great… movie, and I think hopefully there’ll be a future for that. Three of my other books right now are optioned for movies, and we will, you know, it’s all kind of make-believe until somebody steps up and funds the thing and gets serious about it. So we will see, but for now I am all about Will Rogers and Will to Win, and we’re having fun with it, and there’s a sequel book to that called Willpower. I’ll write as soon as we get this film done and then a third in the trilogy if it goes that far called Will and Testament. So, you know, it’s kind of fun to see where they go and they take on a life of their own. Mm hmm.

SPEAKER 03 : 11:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, when you talk about what would be a great documentary, by the way, but OK, when you talk about Will Rogers, when you were talking about him being, you know, in the newspapers and he was a humorous, he’s on the radio, he’s on Broadway, he’s in movies. So he really is like the influencer of his time, because you think about the people that have the most influence now. And when I get invited to things, or at least I did for TV or even radio, there’s now influencers who are invited because they might reach out and touch more people than local TV people or radio people because they have such a wide reach with their following and how – making stars out of some of the most unlikely people. And I follow a lot of them. And it’s interesting because, you know, they’ll pop up on your feed and you’re like, oh, I didn’t even know about this person. Like I started following a couple of animal like rescue people who are really amusing and really make a difference. And one in particular, he’s become just this phenomenon with, I don’t know, millions and millions of followers. And he’s built a huge rescue facility in Oregon called Asher House around it. And, you know, maybe five years ago, he just had a little RV and was traveling around and quit his finance job and was traveling around in an RV, you know, talking about rescuing animals and animals in general. And now he has this massive facility and so many employees. And it’s all because he has a huge following. He makes money off of that. But then he came up with some kind of line of dog, you know, supplements or vitamins or things for pain, this, that and the other. Anyway, it’s amazing to me how the world has changed. But back then, he was really, as you put it, the most famous person really in the world for his time. And we don’t really have anything quite like that now. And that was back when it was more difficult to reach people because there weren’t as many mediums. You know, the radio, newspaper, Broadway, movies, I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that for his day and age.

SPEAKER 01 : 13:56

Yeah, he was truly amazing, and he was a political commentator, but he could disagree without being disagreeable. In the Capitol Rotunda of the United States, there’s a statue, a whole bunch of statues of politicians there of eras, and there’s one guy there that was never elected, and it’s Will Rogers, and And oftentimes when the House or the Senate is out of session, they’ll interview someone. And if you look in the background, more often than anyone else, the statue behind him is Will Rogers because he wasn’t from either party. It’s not a partisan deal. And so they take the thing in front of Will. But I remember one of the times he spoke to the House and Senate, he said, you know, ladies and gentlemen, I’m a humorist. When I make a joke, it’s my job. When you folks make a joke, it’s a law. We’ve got to live with it. And he would talk about how you guys need to get a little more serious. And one of the most poignant statements during the Great Depression, he said, we’ve got 10 men that can buy the whole country and 10 million that can’t buy a meal. And there’s something wrong.

SPEAKER 03 : 15:00

Yeah, something wrong with that. JimStoval.com, the columnist, will to win. Thank you, friend.

SPEAKER 05 : 15:05

Thank you.

SPEAKER 04 : 15:11

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SPEAKER 05 : 16:04

Englewood is listening to the Mighty 670, KLT Denver.

SPEAKER 03 : 16:13

Hello, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news. If you are just joining us, Lindsay Butler is joining us, and she is with the U.S. Postal Service, and she is the executive manager of safety and health programs. And I actually really look forward to this interview, maybe because I do receive so many things in the mail from various places. My husband jokes around that we – And all the postal people know me by name, which they do because I leave them treats. But anyway, it’s an important month because the U.S. Postal Service is talking about national bite awareness this June. Welcome, Lindsay.

SPEAKER 02 : 16:52

Thank you, Angie.

SPEAKER 03 : 16:54

You’re welcome. I do this interview every year, and I just think people often say that, you know, oh, my dog’s so friendly and don’t worry about it, etc. But this is really a big issue for a lot of postal workers. Can you talk about dog bites and why it is such an important issue for us to be talking about?

SPEAKER 02 : 17:16

Absolutely. It might sound like something you just hear about, but dog bites are actually a real and ongoing safety issue for our male carriers. We urge dog owners to restrain their dog at all times. Dogs are animals. They have instinctively reactions and can bite for any number of reasons. All it takes is just one wrong interaction or movement from our carriers to be injured.

SPEAKER 03 : 17:42

Well, in terms of, you know, our particular people that come here, they actually know my dogs. But regardless, I try to always get them inside because you just never know, like, who might bolt or if there’s a weird reaction to somebody, if they can smell something on someone. And so they may be friendly to you, but they might not be friendly to somebody else. But, you know, once they get there, if it’s somebody that I don’t know pretty well, I usually let them out and we just chat for a minute. And the dogs, you know, but it’s with their permission, of course. So Any tips that you have for those of us who have dogs? I have quite a few.

SPEAKER 02 : 18:15

You know, you’re absolutely right. And I appreciate that you do that. And like you said, dogs are friendly. And then, you know, one second, they may have a different reaction to a different person. So yes, they may perceive a different male carrier to be an intruder invading their space. And they’re just trying to protect their family and territory. So the best way to keep safe from dog bites and attacks is to recognize and promote responsible pet ownership, such as teaching your dog appropriate behavior and commands, socializing, and don’t allow your dog to roam freely. Like you said, you secure your dog. Just make sure your dog is secure at all times. If the carrier delivers mail or packages to your door, place your dog in a separate room or secure area. And although that may seem odd, some dogs have actually pushed through screen doors and jumped through windows. So if a carrier feels threatened by a dog or if a dog is running loose, you know, the owner may have to come to the post office to pick up their mail because it’s just not safe to deliver.

SPEAKER 03 : 19:19

Right, right. And, you know, we think that we can keep them from getting out the door. But like you said, I mean, mine are little, so they slip through. And then like you said, the big ones can get through screen doors and other things because they’re trying to protect, you know, their property. Plus, there’s usually the uniform or whatever, the postal service that they may not recognize or find intimidating in some way as well. So, you know, let’s just reiterate how serious this is, because I’m sure a lot of people are like, oh, that’s probably happens, you know, like a couple times a month. No, this happens a lot.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:49

Yeah, and actually in 2025, over 5,200 incidents occurred of dog biting. That’s actually 14 per day if you think about it.

SPEAKER 03 : 20:02

Oh my goodness, that is so crazy. And I understand there’s some technology that the Postal Service is using to protect its workers. I’m very interested in hearing about that.

SPEAKER 02 : 20:13

Yeah, let me tell you about it. So to help our employees, technology supports carrier safety in two ways. The first are our handheld scanners used by our carriers, and they confirm customer deliveries, but it includes a feature to indicate the presence of a dog at an address. So about 25 yards before a carrier will get to that address, there will be an alert that they can see, and it will say something like, Oakley the dog likes to hide behind the fence and approach you as you come to the door, so be alert. These mobile devices provide that enhanced digital service while also promoting safe carrier options. And the second is the USPS informed delivery service that alerts customers to mail packages coming to their home, allowing them to plan for the carrier’s arrival and securing their dog safely prior to the carrier actually, you know, coming to the door. And that’s free. So if your customers want to know more about that, they can go to USPS.com as well. Excellent.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:21

Now, is that information that another postal carrier has put into the system? Like, oh, I always go to Angie’s house and she’s got, you know, five pets. And so I’ll put in a few notes. Is that from another carrier that’s put that in there? Yes, yes. Okay. I was curious if it like had some awareness that there were dogs on the property. I love that. All right.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:42

So it seems like… No, we have to manually input it, but who knows what’s in the future.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:48

Right. With AI, right, right, right. They’re like, I sense three dogs behind that garage door. Beware. All right. So it seems like the awareness campaign, you know, it is making a difference. We talk about it every year with you guys. How can other people, how can we keep the momentum going?

SPEAKER 02 : 22:06

Yeah, the good news is that awareness is making a difference, and we really have our customers, like your listeners, and employees to thank for that. Out of that 5,200 incidents last year, we saw 842 fewer incidents, and that’s because of customers taking simple steps to help keep deliveries safe, like securing their pets, staying aware during deliveries, and employees are staying alert and following safe delivery practices. That partnership between the two is what really helps keep this momentum going.

SPEAKER 03 : 22:42

Well, Lindsay, I don’t think you’re just helping your people. I think you’re helping communities in general. Being in the news business now, TV and radio, for like 30-some-odd years, I can’t tell you the number of stories that we’ve covered. First of all, the people that say, you know, my dog doesn’t bite. Well, they don’t until they do. You know, I mean, I had a child once that never bit me, but then went to the vet. Right. They don’t until they do. And there’s that incident or there are certain breeds where, you know, they might be more likely to bite. But there was a recent story about two all the same pit bulls that, you know, were known to get out of their yard. And they ended up killing someone. So by you making sure that we’re taking care of our dogs and keeping them in our yard and making sure they’re secure and making sure that fence doesn’t pop open or that gate is better or that they can’t jump the fence or that they have a really good. We have those collars, you know, that keeps them in our yard, that they have all of that. But although my five pound Pomeranian, this hasn’t been known to, you know, do anything. any damage but you know still they’re secured in the yard so with that said you’re not just helping the carriers you’re helping the community because a lot of people every year are injured or even as far as being killed by dogs in the community so this is important for everyone what you’re doing

SPEAKER 02 : 23:56

Yeah, thanks, Angie. I agree. And, you know, to an extent, I think it’s also better for the dog, too. You know, when you place them in that other room, I think their anxiety really lessens. And so that’s better for the dog as well.

SPEAKER 03 : 24:08

I agree. I agree. And then there’s a last thing, too. I was going to say we’re keeping our cats in right now because we have robins on our porch that are in the whatever the light. But, you know, even the cats, et cetera, you’re letting animals out that can be hit by cars. People are swerving. You’re in a neighborhood. I’m in a neighborhood with no sidewalks because it’s more like, I don’t know, like kind of farmy feeling. But anyway, I just think this is an important message for all of us that we need to keep track of our animals for their sake and for the sake of others. I want to know where we can go to get more info, but I want to ask you a few more questions, too. So where can we go to get more info?

SPEAKER 02 : 24:41

Okay, your listeners can find more info by searching for the National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign on USPS.com, or more specifically, USPS.com slash Dog Bite Awareness. There’s also a postal blog about the campaign on our website. And we have information on all of our social media platforms at hashtag dog bite awareness.

SPEAKER 03 : 25:08

Excellent. And then I want to ask you, you know, I guess the luxury of what I do is I get to interview so many different people from so many different backgrounds. And especially with some of my kids in high school and college now and thinking about what they’re going to do in the future and AI changing so many jobs. I love to know, like, how did you get into a position like this? How did you get a passion for delivering messages like this? Like what? How did you get into promoting the National Dog Campaign and working for the USPS?

SPEAKER 02 : 25:37

I started right out of high school, actually, as a temporary employee, a casual. And over the 22 years I’ve been with the Postal Service, I have worked my way up. And, you know, with a little bit of luck, I have the opportunity to do something as amazing as this. But, you know, just hard work, dedication, and 22 years of the grind, Angie. 22 years of what? grinding, you know, just doing the grind, you know, every day coming to work, showing up and being there for our customers. I did do five years as a carrier where I had to be very vigilant of my surroundings every day. And, you know, it is a task that is an additional task to all the other hardships we deal with every day, whether it be the weather or the volume of mail.

SPEAKER 03 : 26:33

Right, right. Yeah, I think people forget about that. You really are out there in the weather. Okay, so with that said, the 22 years, I think it’s a cool message to deliver because you started there right out of high school, but you also chose a good, solid organization to work for right out of high school. So you had those opportunities to rise up in the ranks. So choosing a good organization to work for in the first place, I think, was a huge benefit for you as well.

SPEAKER 02 : 27:00

Absolutely. I have a lot to be appreciative of from the Postal Service, and I care deeply about this organization and our employees.

SPEAKER 03 : 27:10

Okay, last question. What was the most fun part of being five years, you know, as a carrier, and what was like the most tedious or difficult aspect of being a carrier, the most challenging?

SPEAKER 02 : 27:24

Wow, great questions. The first thing that comes to mind was the serenity. Early in the morning, you know, I used to deliver in Utah and up on the mountains early in the morning, the deer would just be in the front lawns as I was walking house to house. And it was just such a wonderful opportunity. And I would think every day, I can’t believe I get paid to do this. So that was wonderful. let’s see, the worst. I think it’s just the day-to-day pressure of being out there in the public and worrying about child safety as schools come out and summer is approaching and dog safety. And, you know, there’s just a lot to think about in addition to delivering the mail. But I do not regret a single day that I carried dogs.

SPEAKER 03 : 28:15

I have often thought because I love to walk so much, so whenever I’m in the airport and I see people bringing people to the gate or I see carriers who still walk because a lot don’t just because things are spread out or a lot of times now in these neighborhoods, they have those big boxes at the front of the neighborhood. You just deliver everything right there. But I’ve always thought, since I want to get my 10,000 steps today, I’m like, well, wouldn’t it be cool? I could be a carrier. I could get paid to walk around. Now, I think I’m a little long in the tooth now at this age. But I always thought, what a great way to get exercise. But I never, your answer kind of took me by surprise. I would never think of Serenity. But I’ve spent a lot of time in Utah and Moab and a lot of the national parks there. And it’s just so gorgeous. I can imagine just even walking in the neighborhoods must have been absolutely spectacular. Well, I sure appreciate your message and you helping us out today to raise awareness for national dog safety for the USPS. So would you just give us your website one more time, Lindsay?

SPEAKER 02 : 29:12

Yeah, usps.com slash dog bite awareness. And, Angie, thank you so much for the opportunity to provide this awareness to your listeners.

SPEAKER 03 : 29:22

You bet, Lindsay Butler. It was fun talking to you. Have a great day. You too. Thanks.

SPEAKER 05 : 29:27

Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.