American Wrestler: The Wizard
American Wrestler: The Wizard is a 2016 American sports biographical film directed by Alex Ranarivelo. The film centers around the world of competitive high school wrestling and stars George Kosturos as Ali Jahani, a 17–year old who escapes Iran in the 1980s after the Iran hostage crisis and must adjust to life in a small California town only to face more hostility due to the hostage crisis. William Fichtner, Jon Voight, Ali Afshar, Gabriel Basso, Kevin G. Schmidt and Lia Marie Johnson also star in supporting roles.
Cast
- George Kosturos as Ali Jahani
- William Fichtner as Coach Plyler
- Ali Afshar as Hafez Tabad
- Lia Marie Johnson as Kristi Larsen
- Gabriel Basso as Jimmy Petersen
- Jon Voight as Principal Robert Skinner
- Sasha Feldman as Dan 'Toad' Webster
- Chase Mowen as Mike Thornhill
- Kevin G. Schmidt as Roman Knox
- Nicholas Guilak as Pasha
- Shannon Collis as Wendy
Production
Development
The idea for American Wrestler: The Wizard is heavily inspired by producer Ali Afshar who took up wrestling in his high school after fleeing from his home country of Iran due to the political outrage in the 1970s. Speaking on his take of biographical films, Ali stated that he wanted to show that any tough situation can have a positive impact no matter what the outcome. He wanted to emphasise the demeanour of how one's loss can actually be turned into a win.Majority of the filming took place in Petaluma, California, with scenes being shot at Casa Grande High School, as well as Tomales high school for hallway scenes, cafeteria scenes, as well as the gymnasium being used for some wrestling scenes. Some scenes were also shot in Santa Rosa mainly in the Sonoma County area.