Gary Fleder's NFL Biopic 'Breakaway Ray' Sets San Francisco Shoot for February 2027

Gary Fleder is heading to the Bay Area. The director's upcoming sports biopic 'Breakaway Ray' is targeting a February 2027 production start in San Francisco, California, and with the project currently in development, this is precisely the window when savvy crew members and department heads start making their availability known. The film tells the real-life story of NFL running back Ray Davis, whose journey out of poverty and the foster care system was reshaped by a life-changing relationship formed through Big Brothers Big Sisters. It is an emotionally grounded, character-driven story with the kind of broad commercial appeal that tends to attract significant distribution attention and a strong union crew.

Fleder is a director with a long track record across both features and television, best known for helming the thriller 'Kiss the Girls' starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, as well as 'Runaway Jury' with John Cusack, Gene Hackman, and Dustin Hoffman. On the TV side, he has directed episodes of some of the most prestigious dramas on the air, including 'The Good Wife,' 'Ray Donovan,' and 'Suits.' His work consistently sits in the polished, studio-quality tier of production, and his familiarity with both the feature world and high-end episodic television suggests he brings a disciplined, efficient approach to set. The screenplay comes from W. Peter Iliff, a writer whose credits include the original 'Point Break,' the cult surfing classic that remains one of the more beloved action scripts of the early 1990s. Iliff brings a proven ability to write physical, kinetic drama with emotional depth, which maps well onto the biopic format here. The combination of Fleder's visual efficiency and Iliff's character-driven action writing makes for an encouraging creative pairing.

Producing the film are Patrick Rizzotti and Lanie Albin, alongside the banner Blue Fox Entertainment. Rizzotti, through Crossroad Productions, and Albin, through Mojo Films, have worked across a range of independent and mid-budget features. Blue Fox Entertainment is an established sales, acquisition, and production company with a strong track record in the independent space, known for financing and distributing commercially viable genre pictures and prestige-adjacent dramas. Their involvement signals a well-structured independent production with serious distribution infrastructure behind it. No broadcast or streaming partner has been announced publicly at this stage, but a sports biopic with this kind of inspirational arc and an NFL hook is exactly the kind of project that attracts platform interest as it moves through development toward a package.

San Francisco is a distinctive and relatively uncommon choice for a feature film production of this type, and that specificity almost certainly connects directly to Ray Davis's actual biography and roots in the Bay Area. From a production standpoint, California remains an expensive jurisdiction compared to incentive-heavy states like Georgia or New Mexico, though the California Film Commission's tax incentive program does offer meaningful rebates for qualifying independent features, and a story this closely tied to a specific real-world geography makes the location swap a harder argument to make. San Francisco has hosted major productions over the years and has a solid local crew base, though it is worth noting that many productions shooting in the Bay Area pull from both San Francisco's local talent pool and from Los Angeles, particularly at the department head level. Crew based in Northern California should be watching this one closely, and LA-based department heads willing to travel should be positioning themselves accordingly.

With principal photography slated for February 2027, the production is sitting comfortably in early development right now, which means the formal crew hiring pipeline is still many months away. That said, department heads in production design, costume, and locations work are often approached well before official pre-production begins on a biopic of this scope, particularly one that will require authentic period and location elements tied to a recognizable real-world story. The genre mix of sports drama and inspirational biopic typically calls for a strong locations department to capture the authentic texture of San Francisco neighborhoods, a production design team capable of evoking the economic realities of Davis's upbringing, and camera work that can handle both intimate dramatic scenes and the energy of football action sequences. Whether the production elects to incorporate actual NFL game footage or recreate game-day sequences on screen will be a key budgetary and logistical decision that shapes the size of the stunt and athletic coordination team.

The full listing for 'Breakaway Ray' on ProductionList.com includes all confirmed production contacts, company information, and location details, and will be updated as the project advances through development and into pre-production. If you are a department head, location scout, or crew member based in the Bay Area or available for a Northern California shoot in early 2027, now is the time to bookmark this production and get your materials in front of the right people. Check back regularly as casting, additional producer attachments, and a distribution announcement are all likely to follow in the months ahead.

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