Louis Mulkey was featured in an ESPN segment last Sunday
The heartwarming story of Louis Mulkey might be headed to the big screen.
Mulkey, one of nine Charleston firefighters killed June 18 in the Sofa Super Store fire, also coached at Summerville High School and provided the inspiration for the basketball team that won the Class AAAA state championship in March.
On Sunday, ESPN documented Mulkey's connection to the team and what he meant to the players and the community. After its championship victory in Columbia, the team returned home that night and visited his grave, where some of the players left their gold medals.
Summerville coach Tee Newman, Mulkey's best friend, said he has already been contacted by Walt Disney Pictures and the agent of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams about a possible movie. A Los Angeles production company called The Post and Courier on Tuesday in an attempt to contact Newman and Mulkey's widow, Lauren.
"At first, I never thought of it as a movie," Newman said. "But like my brother said, everything is perfectly scripted. They wouldn't have to change a thing. The best thing about it is everything is true. It would fit right in there with 'Radio' and other movies with a high-school sports theme and a great message to tell."
The ESPN feature showed Mulkey the football coach jumping up and down at practice, and Mulkey the basketball coach delivering a pre-game speech to his eighth-grade team. He told the basketball players they had the potential to win a state championship, and four years later, they proved him right.
The Los Angeles production company didn't want to be identified, but its spokesman said the Mulkey story would be a great movie. "We'd love to think we're the only ones out there who feels this way, but we're not."
Lauren Mulkey owns the rights to her husband's life story, the spokesman said. Attempts to reach her Tuesday were unsuccessful.