Heart of a Dragon

A reporter, Ivan Kostelic, awaits on a railway platform in China. It is around afternoon and the reporter is laden with camera equipment. He is tired and walks slowly with a cane towards the arriving train. Ivan is in China to investigate about a report, that millions of Chinese have flooded the street to welcome a hero from the West. Rick Hansen is a world champion athlete who advocates the disable, whom has set out words across the world, sitting in his wheelchair and showed that disable people can do anything, if given a chance.

China has a long relationship with disability. One of its political leader is a much admired figure, who as a boy was beaten by the Red Guards and thrown off the roof of a University in Beijing, as a warning to his father Deng Xiaoping, the target of Mao’s wrath, as his reign was ending. The boy was left to die in the street but unknown to the Red Guards, emissaries from US and Canadian diplomatic staff, rescued the boy by hiding and secretly transporting him out of China to Canada, where he was rehabilitated and eventually returned to China when his father Deng Xiaoping became Premier.

Deng Pufang waited in his wheelchair as Rick Hansen arrived in China, remembering the people who saved and rehabilitated his life. He had become an important and legendary figure in Chinese life. Rick Hansen knew the story but what happened next changed his life as millions streamed into the streets. Western media wondered out loud about what was happening. Ivan Kostelic covered Rick Hansen when he competed and while the reporter applauded his athletic achievements, Kostelic was not convinced of the Hansen's intentions or commitment.

Ivan followed Hansen through China to the Great Wall and witnessed an impossible ascent. Those supporting Hansen clashed repeatedly as the reporter struggled to understand their loyalty. Finally, in a moment of clarity, Ivan sees Rick fall apart physically and emotionally. In that moment, the reporter understands that, for disabled people, being invisible is no longer an option.

• Victor Webster[1] [2] as Rick Hansen
• Jim Byrnes as Ivan Kostelic
• Jiayang Cheng[3] as Little Boy
• Wei Dongzhen[4] as Tai Chi Master
• Ethan Embry as Lee Gibson
• Zhang Fu as Lion Dancer
• Zhu Li[5] as Musician
• Aleks Paunovic as Tim Frick
• Andrew Lee Potts as Don Alder
• Sarah-Jane Potts as Amanda Reid
• Yuna as Maylee

In 1998, Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Pictures, optioned the life rights to the story of a man who pushed himself across the world in a wheelchair. Rick Hansen, an athlete and advocate for social justice, had long dreamed about the potential of the marginalized disabled community. Living in the shadows and being denied opportunity was not what Hansen would accept for himself or others who knew disability. In the 1980s, Hansen was a world champion wheelchair racer. He used his athletic success to create the Man in Motion World Tour [6]in 1985. During the tour he wheeled 40000 kilometers through 34 countries, raising millions of dollars for spinal cord research and lifting the veil of invisibility for a community desperate to be seen.

Upon securing the rights of the story, Sherry Lansing secured producers Mark Gordon, David Foster, and Michael French whose backgrounds lent themselves to create a motion picture that would embrace Rick Hansen’s ambition, his struggle, and his triumph of the human spirit. Gordon’s 'Saving Private Ryan’, Foster’s 'St. Elmo’s Fire,’ and French’s documentaries touched the story elements. Following two years of script development at the Studio, Paramount made the decision not to produce the movie.

The producers quickly embraced a decision to proceed independently as a theatrical film, inspired by real life events, French witnessed in 1987 when he directed a Canadian television documentary (Heart of a Dragon) in China, where Rick Hansen’s unexpected hero were welcome everywhere in the Middle Kingdom and "his impossible ascent of the Great Wall". Seeing this historic documentary introduced Sherry Lansing to a story that later as CEO of Paramount, Ms. Lansing would develop as a feature film alongside Mark Gordon, David Foster and Michael French,[7] all of whom had connections to the story. None were more direct than David Foster, who after seeing news coverage of Rick Hansen pushing himself in a wheelchair, was inspired to write the song St. Elmo’s Fire with John Parr. The song was a hit for David and torch that Rick would light Rick Hansen’s journey everywhere he traveled.

The theatrical adaptation produced by Gordon, Foster and French of was shot principally in China, starting at the beginning in 2005, with assistance from the China Film Group and screened extensively throughout China in 2008. Heart of a Dragon was limited to theatrical release in Canada in 2010 and became available for streaming in the US by 2012.

Heart of a Dragon [8] [9] was filmed on location in Beijing and on the Great Wall of China.

Heart of a Dragon was produced and directed by Michael French, [10] with Executive Producers, David Foster and Mark Gordon.

Sherry Lansing, while heading Paramount Pictures, before as an independent Producer, developed the Rick Hansen Story, that would become Heart of a Dragon, and introduced producers French, Gordon and Foster to the project.

Chris Ainscough composed the score, edited and supervised the post production for Heart of a Dragon.

Albert Normandin, a photographer long steeped in Asia’s natural light provided the still photography for Heart of a Dragon.

Other members of the crew include:

• Colette Gouin
• Bingjian Zhang - Assistant Director
• Bing Rao - Cinematographer
• Blaise Noto - Associate Producer
• Chris Earthy - Associate Producer
• John Bromley - Associate Line Producer
• Britt French - Production Coordinator

• Heart of a Dragon at IMDb