‘Dreamin’ Wild’: Bucktail grad plays role in creation of music-based … – Lock Haven Express

Steven Kurutz

RENOVO — “Dreamin’ Wild” opens nationwide this Friday… and it has a connection to the small town of Renovo.

The movie, a biopic, stars Casey Affleck and Zooey Deschanel and tells the unlikely tale of two brothers — Donnie and Joe Emerson — and their album that sold a few dozen copies when it was released in 1977.

Over 30 years later the album would be re-discovered, and forever change the fate of the Emersons, who live in Fruitland — an extremely rural part of Washington state about an hour and half outside of Spokane.

As it turns out, the person that found the gem of an album (through a friend that’s an avid music collector) and re-introduced it to the world was Steven Kurutz, a 1994 Bucktail Area High School graduate who has worked for the New York Times as features reporter since graduating Penn State University.

Despite downplaying his role, insisting it’s about the Emerson family “who are simply the kindest, most genuine people that I have ever met,” according to Kurutz, the Shintown native gets his due in the movie.

The movies’ initial credits announce to the audience that the feature film was inspired by “Fruitland” the essay by Steven Kurutz, additionally, his role is seen throughout the movie as Kurutz is played by actor Rich Morris.

Despite having an idea over the last year that his involvement would make it into the film, Steven kept it to his family, before recent months mentioning it to his closest of friends.

“Yeah, I wasn’t going to tell people then find out that my part was on the cutting room floor,” laughed Kurutz as he drove from his home in Maine to New York to watch the premier with key players like Donnie Emerson and Director Bill Pohlad.

Having written thousands of stories, the New York Times reporter recognized that he had something as soon as he met the Emersons.

“I did the story for the New York Times in 2012, it was a short article, with obvious space restrictions, so I didn’t really get to tell the whole story,” Kurutz said about flying to Fruitland to meet the Emerson family.

“They are in a very rural part of the country, in fact it makes Renovo look like a bit of a metropolis and I think having grown up in a similar environment their sincerity struck me, it’s not like the Times is covering such rural places on a regular basis,” joked Kurutz.

Feeling like his article wasn’t enough to explain how he felt about the Emersons, in 2016 Kurutz re-visited the subject, and this time penned a 10,000-word essay for Creative Noniction out of Pittsburgh.

The seasoned 46-year-old author explained he felt — compared to anything that he has ever written — it was movie worthy, something he never felt so strongly before.

A friend worked it out so producer Jim Burke (“The Green Mile”) read his essay and he agreed with Kurutz that there was a story to tell surrounding the lives of the Emersons.

Once Burke got the Emerson family on board, next up was to find a director, studio, investors and so on.

All the while Kurutz insists that he knew enough about the business to never get too excited, for fear it could not develop to evolve at numerous points of the process.

Bill Pohlad would eventually be tapped as director of what would become “Dreamin’ Wild.” Pohlad’s production company has produced movies such as “Brokeback Mountain.” This would be the second film that Pohlad has directed, his first being another musical biopic starring John Cusack among others as they tackled the life of Beach Boy Brian Wilson.

Once the film was picked up, Kurutz’s role would end as Pohlad and Burke would use his article and essay as a roadmap, but they would take over creative ventures for the movie.

“That’s actually fine by me, not only is it the way that it works, but by not writing the script I didn’t have the frustration of movie critics, box office worries and things like that, it was just pure joy for me watching it all develop,” he said.

Kurutz saw a rough cut of the film a year ago, but still knew his part of the story making it to the big screen could still end up not being a part of the finished product.

It wasn’t until six weeks ago that he was sent a screener that he and his wife, Cara, would watch the movie “on my tiny laptop in the kitchen” from their home in Maine.

That’s when he realized his efforts would in fact be featured.

“I don’t know, I still didn’t tell anyone, it wasn’t until today,” Kurutz said, just days before the premiere.

He explained he finally mentioned it to Barb Rauch, the librarian of the Renovo Public Library, a place Kurutz has credited with discovering his love of books and reading.

Kurutz has been a constant supporter of the library throughout his adult life.

“I couldn’t be happier for the Emerson family including Donnie and Joe’s parents, Don and Salina who are still alive and were able to see the album get re-discovered. And now the movie, my part was just introducing this wonderful family to the rest of the world,” Kurutz summed up.

“Baby” has become the best-known song from the Emerson brothers’ album as both their version and Ariel Pink’s cover have gained attention over recent years.

Steven and Cara even heard the tune play over the radio in 2019 while vacationing in France.

A three-minute trailer for “Dreamin’ Wild” can be viewed on YouTube, which includes a heavy dose of Rich Morris’ portrayal of Kurutz.

Steven, Cara and their two sons, Gregory and Theo, moved from New York to Maine last year, Kurutz remains a features reporter for the New York Times.