There is a sign that hangs on the editing room wall at Nick Davis Productions that reads: “This film has not been made before.”
Davis, a New Yorker and lifelong Mets fan, is the director and producer of the the forthcoming ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on the 1986 New York Mets. A lot has been published about the 1986 Mets over the last three decades including books, news stories, radio and television features and thousands of parts and pieces across the web. Some true, some … not so true. According to Davis, there is a lot of untold stories that will be intrigue even the most hardcore fans of the blue and orange.
“That’s inspiring to me,” said Davis in a recent interview with Mets Rewind. “There’s so much about this team that we didn’t know. And so many interesting stories that happened. I haven’t been told a story like this. I feel so responsible to the people who do know the story. So there’s a responsibility to tell it in a way that satisfies all those people, but also satisfies the people who don’t know the story.”
After two-and-one-half years of research, interviewing and production, his team has 11 weeks to complete the second “rough cut” of the film for ESPN.
“Those 11 weeks are hugely important because the film is being made,” he said. “If I do my job right it’ll be fun and entertaining and moving and funny and smart and heartbreaking at times. That’s what I know because that’s what the footage and the material in the interviews have said to me in the process of making it.”
