“The book was given to me. When I read it, I loved that it was a story about parents struggling with issues that all parents face. Yet, it was told through the perspective of a kid with autism,” writer-director Jon Gunn states. “It was an opportunity to give insight into the experience of being a person with autism. It was also a chance to show what it is like to raise a person with autism.” He knew The Unbreakable Boy would be relatable to all parents at its core. This was true regardless of whether a disability was noticeable in a child.
From Kingdom Story Company, the team behind Jesus Revolution and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, comes a new film. Lionsgate, the studio behind Wonder, also presents this story, titled The Unbreakable Boy. When Scott (Zachary Levi) and Teresa (Meghann Fahy) learn that Austin is both autistic, they initially worry. They find out he also has brittle bone disease. They worry about their son’s future. With Scott’s growing faith, they find joy even in hard times. Austin’s incredible spirit helps them find gratitude and courage. They become “unbreakable.”
The Unbreakable Boy isn’t about autism. It’s about life. About real life. It’s about family, about joy, and about learning to accept the world one finds oneself in, challenges and all. A 13-year-old boy’s joyous and unconquerable spirit guides everything. His zeal for life is infectious. His unique outlook truly changes all of those around him. This happened in real life.
Scott and Teresa LeRette had met in early 1994 and began dating. Not long after their third date, Teresa discovered she was pregnant. The two decided to pursue their relationship and create a family in Iowa. Their son, Austin, was born on November 10 that year, and the couple married the next month. But soon after Austin’s birth, they realized he suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta (“OI”). It is the same genetic brittle bone disease that Teresa had been born with. Both Teresa and her newborn son are delicately vulnerable to broken bones. Even tripping or simple falls to the floor can cause them harm.
They gave birth to a second son, Logan, two years later. But not long after, they began noticing inexplicable behavioral issues with Austin, and he was soon diagnosed as autistic. This couple that had barely gotten to know each other before starting a family now had their hands full.
As they raised their family, Scott was outgoing. He began to develop his own personal issues. He became more and more dependent on alcohol. Scott used alcohol to stave off fears and uncertainties as a husband and a father. His alcoholism made him lose his job in the medical supply business. Eventually, his wife forced him out of the home because he put their boys’ safety at risk. He went into recovery, eventually rejoining the family. He found inspiration for making change. He saw the simple joy and love constantly in Austin.
Even before getting sober, Scott began writing notes to himself in a spiral notebook. He kept track of the often-humorous incidents and moments that happened in his and his family’s life. This was particularly true for the ones related to Austin. He did this simply as a cathartic outlet for himself. “I realized some of these stories were pretty funny,” he recalls. “Some of them are pretty ironic, and some are almost dark — but some be considered inspiring.” He eventually started a blog called “Austinistic,” containing what became several hundred such stories. He soon decided to assemble them into a book, co-written with best-selling author Susy Flory. The book was published in November 2014. It was titled The Unbreakable Boy: A Father’s Fear, a Son’s Courage, and a Story of Unconditional Love. “I had told Teresa, ‘I’m going to write a book, and it’s going to be a TV show one day.’” He was not far off.
A few years later in 2017 while on a business trip to New York, Scott, a straight razor-shaving enthusiast (and there are many!), popped into a well-known pharmacy that sold such products, Pasteur Pharmacy, run by a fellow named Leon Tarasenko. Upon meeting Tarasenko, Scott handed him a copy of the book. “Whenever I would travel, I would always bring a copy or two with me,” he notes. Tarasenko asked him if he had considered making a movie out of it. He also suggested Scott connect with his brother-in-law in Hollywood, who “did something” in the movie business.
His brother-in-law was actor-producer Peter Facinelli (best known for his work as Dr. Fitch Cooper on the Showtime series “Nurse Jackie”), to whom he had passed along the book Scott gave him. “Leon kept bugging me to read it. When I finally did,” Facinelli recalls, “I thought, ‘Wow, this is a really powerful story. It should be made into a movie.’ It was a beautiful family story about a father and son. The bond that they have is deep. The son taught him all the lessons about what pure love is.” (Facinelli would eventually not only produce the film but appear in it as Preacher Rick.)
On a further work trip to Southern California, he and Scott met up in Burbank. They discussed the idea of a film. The actor advised Scott for about a year. An independent production company became involved, even engaging a writer, but things didn’t move ahead. The two then decided to work together themselves to make things happen.
They eventually met with Mona Garcea, a TV executive at Kingdom Story Company. She invited Jerilyn Esquibel, one of the company’s development executives, to join them. “After hearing the story, I felt strongly that we should do it. It should be a feature film,” Esquibel says. “I fell in love with it. It’s such a beautiful, honest, good/bad/ugly story of their life. I loved that nothing was hidden. There were no rose-colored glasses. It was just so raw and real. It was about the hardships of raising a child with autism. It also showed everything they themselves had gone through. I knew it had to be a movie, and it was a story I wanted to tell.”
Writing the Screenplay and Directing the Film
Kingdom had collaborated on four films with writer-director Jon Gunn. For The Unbreakable Boy, they asked him to both direct and write the screenplay. “He’s an incredible creative partner for us,” says Erwin. “I love working with him, and I love his voice.”
“We tell that story with some real honest humour and some real honest heartache that all parents go through. These parents struggled with the fact that they didn’t really know each other when they got married. They didn’t know each other when they had this child. They had no idea how to raise a child with the specific conditions that Austin had.”
There was indeed a way to tell the LeRettes’ story. It would leave viewers optimistic, just as the LeRettes’ themselves are. “When you first examine the journey of the LeRettes,” Gunn says, “it seems that there was a lot of pain. There was also a lot of struggle. But I also felt there was always this sense of optimism at the heart of it. I wanted the movie to feel optimistic. It should be hopeful and funny. Because the struggles we have, when we look back on them, are often the great stories that make people laugh. To me, it was about finding levity in the midst of their struggles. I wanted hopefulness as well.
As a writer adapting Scott’s book, Gunn’s skillfulness in storytelling was a true godsend, Facinelli states. “When we were first looking at it, it was so complex. The family’s life had many periods. I couldn’t wrap my head around how to tell this story. But when we sat down with Jon, he had a clear vision of how to do it.” Indeed, says Scott, “The book is written with a lot of episodic stories, going from one to the other. There was no way you could do that as a movie.”
So, notes Gunn, “For me, it was about finding the way in. The book tells 15 or 20 years’ worth of stories. It includes all of these anecdotes, struggles, and funny stories. So, I decided not to tell it through Scott’s eyes, as the book does. Instead, I found a way in through Austin. He tells us the story. The story is filtered through the eyes of the autistic son. It is built around the journey of a father who struggles. The father runs from responsibility and escapes through alcoholism. He ultimately hits rock bottom. Then, he is lifted back up by his son. We experience it through the eyes of this autistic child. He is so optimistic, hopeful, and positive. His perspective helps give us a balance that I’m always looking to find with this movie. It shows comedy in the midst of pain and pain in the midst of comedy.”
To represent the autism spectrum in an authentic and respectful way, the production relied on a terrific resource. They consulted with autism consultant Stacey Weddington of Autism Oklahoma. Her own autistic son, Alex, appears as an extra in the film. “Everybody wears their autism differently. It doesn’t look the same on any two people,” she explains. “All we needed to remember was, we’re not telling anybody’s autism story but Austin’s. There are enough common characteristics threaded through the movie. People familiar with autism will recognize and relate to it. They will experience some of the challenges and the joys of having a child on the autism spectrum.”
Themes And Hopes
So much of the message of The Unbreakable Boy is about acceptance. It encompasses acceptance of people, oneself, and the hand one has been dealt in life. About the Unbreakable Boy himself, Levi says, “It’s interesting. The very literal, obvious meaning is this little boy, Austin. He’s very breakable, but only in his body. His mind, his spirit, his resolve is very unbreakable, which is so beautiful and inspiring. But Jon Gunn and I talked about that you could almost make a case that the Unbreakable Boy is Scott. Because he’s going through this journey of being broken, but still pushing through and persevering.”
As his parents learn to accept the perfection in Austin, they notice it in his true joy of living. Those around him also learn to embrace this perfection. Then, they are able to find that very thing in themselves.
“Ultimately,” says Meghann Fahy, “what Scott learns from Austin is that not everything can be fixed. Not everything should be fixed. It’s a story about perspective and learning from other people how to find the true joy in life. It’s really about the journey that Scott takes with his son. His son teaches him to truly understand the value of being part of the world you’re presented with. It’s about accepting that and not fighting it.”
“Austin is so present with himself — something that, as human beings, is so hard for us,” Fahy adds. “We really have to focus hard on just being where we are. And he doesn’t have to try that hard to do that. So he walks around reminding people to be in the now. And I think that that, in many ways, is the greatest gift that you can give to a person.”
JON GUNN – WRITER-DIRECTOR – For 25 years, Jon Gunn has worked as a writer, director, editor, and producer. His work ranges from independent comedy and drama to studio tentpoles. As a director, he has directed feature films like My Date with Drew, Like Dandelion Dust, and Ordinary Angels. Gunn has also co-written numerous studio movies. These include The Magic 8 Ball for Paramount, The Nutcracker for Universal, and Monopoly for Hasbro/Sony. Additionally, he has worked on multiple features for Dreamworks animation, including B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations. Most recently, Gunn co-wrote the musical biopic I Still Believe, based on the life of singer Jeremy Camp. He also co-wrote American Underdog, the true-life story of NFL superstar Kurt Warner.
Scott LeRette is a recovering addict and highly engaged, flawed human whose life is full of challenges and stumbles balanced with humble wins, glorious successes . . . and gratitude for it all. He is an author known for his novel, The Unbreakable Boy: A Father’s Fear, a Son’s Courage, and a Story of Unconditional Love, and executive producer of its Lionsgate Studios film adaptation. Scott and his Unbreakable family live in Nebraska; his wife of 30+ years, Teresa; their son Logan, an Omaha police officer; The AuzMan; and their beloved yet equally dysfunctional Cavaliers, Gracie and Coco.
