“12 Mighty Orphans,” produced by Lindale High School alumnus Houston Hill, will be premiering in theaters across Texas this Friday and will be available nationwide June 18.

A Lindale football quarterback alumnus is making moves in the cinematic industry by accomplishing big goals. Houston Hill, a 1998 Lindale High School graduate, produced the film hitting theaters this weekend, “12 Mighty Orphans,” which tells the story of an orphanage football team’s inspirational rise to success.

The film stars well-known actors like Luke Wilson, Robert Duvall and Martin Sheen, Vinessa Shaw and Wayne Knight.

“12 Mighty Orphans” tells the true events of the Mighty Mites, the football team at a Fort Worth orphanage who during the Great Depression went from playing without shoes — or even a football — to playing for the Texas State Championships.

Over the course of their winning season, the underdogs and their resilient spirit became an inspiration to their city, state and an entire nation in need of a rebound, even catching the attention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The architect of their success was Rusty Russell (played by Wilson in the film), a legendary high school coach who shocked his colleagues by giving up a privileged position so he could teach and coach at an orphanage.

Few knew the secret that Rusty himself was an orphan. Recognizing that his scrawny players couldn’t beat the other teams with brawn, Rusty developed innovative strategies that would come to define modern football.

Jake Austin Walker, Treat Williams, Ron White and Scott Haze also star in the film.

Hill, who is from Dallas, was raised and lived in Wills Point. The opportunity came up to continue playing football under quarterback coach Mike Meador at Lindale High School. Meador had coached Hill at Wills Point, but when he accepted a position at Lindale High, Hill’s immediate family packed up and also moved so that Hill could continue pursuing his football career under Meador. Hill’s father played college football, so his parents were extremely supportive of his goals.

“Growing up at the high school in Lindale, they had theater, but they didn’t really have the arts at that time. I was more focused on sports and stuff like that, but growing up, I always had an affinity for sports movies and would rather be watching movies than out playing sports,” Hill said.

At the time Hill was in high school, “Remember the Titans” came out and quickly became his favorite movie. Also based on a true story, the movie inspired Hill to continue in his football career. Not only was it his favorite film, but his friends nicknamed him Sunshine, after the main character who was also a quarterback.

After playing football at Lindale, Hill graduated and attended Texas State University, where he played football until he got hurt. He moved back to East Texas and attended Tyler Junior College for a semester, where he made the difficult decision to leave football and focus on his next big thing.

He had kept tearing his hamstring multiple times, which led to him often being injured. According to Hill, he was tired of being hurt and just realized he couldn’t do it anymore.

“I think I realized I didn’t want it that much. Even though I had spent my whole life preparing to play sports, after doing it my whole life, I realized after a year in college, playing that elite level, this is not for me,” he said.

So, he began that next step by taking a theater class at TJC.

“It was all new to me. It was totally different people that I had been used to being around growing up, just in sports. They were more creative people, more diverse people. To me, it was interesting and being from a small town, getting to be around other people was inspiring,” he said.

He said he would go home and watch different movies. He then came back to class and tried to do monologues from those movies.

“It was instrumental to me, to realize, OK, this is what I should start doing,” he said.

Hill had other aspirations of becoming an actor, so when he graduated college, he knew he had to move out of Texas for a while if he wanted to make it big.

Hill moved to Los Angeles and began working on creating his own opportunities.

“I started making short films, directing, producing,” Hill said. All while working at a hotel as a bellhop, he was able to sustain himself financially while working on his projects.

He began to get his producing experience when he traveled to Mexico City in Mexico to license movies and buy them in the United States. Hill didn’t know it then, but he was gaining skills that would be useful in his career. He was learning about producing, licensing and everything that goes into making a film.

Hill got the feel for the industry and knew this was what he wanted to do.

“12 Mighty Orphans” is by far the biggest movie Hill has produced.

When filming was finished in 2019, COVID-19 happened soon after.

They spent the year getting the film done. They had to finish their work remotely. From visual effects done in New York, to editing in Austin and music being written in Portland.

“When we were finally picked up by Sony Pictures Classics, we were just happy we found a home for it, and Sony is not only a great studio, but they’ve made some of my favorite prestige films, so when they told us they were going to release it in almost 600 theaters, we were kind of in shock,” Hill said.

Amid threats of theaters going away, Hill said it’s more special to him to have a movie premiering this year.

Hill sought out the book, “12 Mighty Orphans,” and raised the money to auction the rights of the book. He hired the writer, director and casting director. He shot the movie, found a sales agent to sell the film and he dealt with investors, actors and unions while overseeing the project day-to-day as well.

Today, Hill co-owns a filming company, Santa Rita Film Co., and was lead producer of the film. His partner and co-owner Ty Roberts and Hill are currently working on filming a true story in Kilgore.

The film premiered in Fort Worth on Monday night and will be in theaters across Texas this Friday.

While the movie will be available nationwide June 18, it is premiering this week in Texas. Locally, Times Square Grand Slam has showings on Thursday at 7 p.m., 8:20 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. and AMC Classic at 7415 S. Broadway Ave. has a showing Friday at 3:30 p.m.

At a glance:

Movie: 12 Mighty Orphans

Producer: Houston Hill, a 1998 Lindale High School graduate and owner of Santa Rita Film Co.

Starring: Luke Wilson, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Vinessa Shaw, Wayne Knight, Jake Austin Walker, Treat Williams, Ron White and Scott HazePlot: A story about a Fort Worth orphanage’s football team’s inspirational rise to success during the Great Depression Era. Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

On the web: sonyclassics.com/film/12mightyorphans/

Local premiere: Times Square Grand Slam, 5201 S. Broadway Suite 170,Thursday at 7 p.m., 8:20 p.m. and 9:45 p.m.AMC Classic at 7415 S. Broadway Ave. has a showing Friday at 3:30 p.m.