This Field Looks Green To Me

Ron Schmidt, Executive Producer / Story Creator

Ron Schmidt was born in 1950 and raised in the three corners of Kentucky with a few early years in Japan during the Korean War. While taking a semester off from the University of Kentucky hitch hiking around the country and working small jobs Jack Kerouac style, he got the taste but not the talent to compete in the creative world. But after years as a business owner and a MBA from Case Western Reserve University the talent became to surface in the form of stories. And remembering his formative years in an Appalachian coal mining town he was pulled back in to hear the stories from the men who played in this historic league. These stories are now compiled in the script for the movie This Field Looks Green To Me. A story about race and relationships, about the fortitude of men and boys and certainly about the identity our country is searching for. In the best seller Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis J.D. Vance addresses the importance of male mentors and role models for Appalachian youth. WWII veterans Harry and Roy are some of those models from the 50s that enabled young Charlie and Jaybird and Sadie Mae to make their way in the new world. This is a story today’s youth need to hear, whether from the south side of Chicago, the suburbs of Memphis or the hollows of West Virginia.

Ron is the President of CBS Certified Public Accountants LLC, and co-author of the book: "How Am I Treating You? Living With Civility and Dignity"

Darren Moorman, Producer

Darren grew up Maryland with a passion for film and media and began acting at age 19. Over the years, he found his true calling to producing and ventured out to L.A., to continue pursuing his dreams. Within two years of being in Hollywood, he produced his first feature film, All Over Again, starring Craig T. Nelson and Academy Award nominee Robert Loggia. The movie was the winner of the Santa Clarita Film Festival.

Darren has worked for industry leaders like MGM, where he worked as the Production Supervisor on various film projects like, Out of Time, with Denzel Washington. He later worked with DIRECTV where he oversaw in-house production and produced the monthly Barker Video, What’s On DIRECTV.

By 2006, Darren’s growing list of accolades included feature films like Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School, an official selection of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, The Fifth Patient which premiered at Cine-Vegas and IFC, Jack and the Beanstalk starring Chevy Chase as well as Sensation of Sight starring Academy Award nominee David Strathairn. His more recent work includes two other feature films including Unconditional which opened nationwide in theaters, and Crackerjack with Jeff Foxworthy, winner of the Knoxville Film Festival.

But Darren’s success is not limited to just feature films. Darren has successfully produced several comedy shows such as, Thou Shalt Laugh, starring Patricia Heaton, Thou Shalt Laugh The Deuce, starring Tim Conway and Thou Shalt Laugh 3, starring Sinbad. He was also the Executive Producer for a TV Pilot called Seven Days of Change.

Darren’s latest films includes an adaptation of the New York Times’ Best Selling Book, Same Kind of Different as Me with Paramount Pictures, starring Renee Zellweger, Greg Kinnear, Djimon Hounsou and Jon Voight. The movie is set to be released in February of next year.

He is currently in production on his new TV series, Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest with Lionsgate, and is also in preproduction on his next movie, “Run the Race”. Darren is the Co-Founder of the Everybody Can Help Somebody Foundation, a non-profit organization that was created in line with Same Kind of Different as Me. The foundation aims to help the homeless all across America.

Darren lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two boys.