Red Dirt Diaries: Netflix Filming Movie About OU Women's Gymnastics Team; In Need Of Extras

A Netflix feature film about the OU Women’s Gymnastics team is being shot right now in Norman, and you can be part of the project. 

Filmmakers are in need of extras to join current and former Sooner gymnasts, who are also in the film.

Writer and Director Jeff Deverett wrote his script about the 2016 OU Women’s National Championship squad.

“The question always is when one of your star athletes leaves, can you win without them? And they did, they won without her,” said Deverett, referencing Brenna Dowell, who pursued her own Olympic dreams.

Dowell is played by an actress in the film, but she plays her own body double.

And 2016 Sooners gymnasts Chayse Capps, AJ Jackson, and Natalie Brown do the same for the film.

“They were in the gym with me and I was coaching them and telling them they needed to come in and work harder,” said OU Gymnastics Coach K.J. Kindler, who plays a commentator in the film.

“I’m just so impressed,” added Kindler, about the training her former athletes went through for the film.

Filmmakers are looking for thousands of extras to pack the Lloyd Noble Center on Tuesday August 27 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., to film the final NCAA National Championship gymnastics meet.

The director said folks do not all have to wear Sooner colors, because other teams competed.

“It’s got to look real,” said Deverett, who said Netflix will release the film around the 2020 Olympic Games.

Four years ago, Deverett wrote and directed “Full Out,” which was inspired by gymnasts from UCLA.

“Full Out” was a hit for Netflix and was shown in 65 countries.

Deverett thinks the film being shot in Norman, which is still unnamed, can have that same success.