Makers of the "Free Solo" documentary about Alex Honnold's unaided climb up the rock face of Yosemite's El Capitan say they would have still made the film if Honnold had slipped and fell to his death.
Film editor Bob Eisenhardt said Friday the possibility had been discussed. He said that he believed the film would have been completed to honor Honnold's memory.
"We were going to make it either way," he said at a news conference where The National Geographic network said "Free Solo" will make its television debut March 3. It will be shown without commercials.
The pulse-pounding film about his quest has been nominated for an Academy Award and been a box office smash in a strong year for documentaries, second only to "Won't You Be My Neighbor" in earnings.
Honnold achieved his remarkable feat in just under four hours in June 2017. Without ropes or harnesses, he climbed using his chalk-dried hands and climbing shoes, grabbing onto cracks and crevasses. The danger is obvious in the sweeping views.
Hannold practiced for two years prior to his climb. One particularly challenging spot, known as the Boulder Problem that required some dexterity, he practiced some 50 or 60 times and thought about all the time, he said.
As a result, he said he believed the alternatives were more between success and stopping short of the summit.
"I think the chances of me falling to my death were extremely low, which is why I tried doing it," he said.
The film also turned unexpectedly into a love story, chronicling his relationship with Sanni McCandless, who he met when she attended a book signing in Seattle. They're still together.
He's still climbing, too. But he considered El Capitan the ultimate challenge, and he hasn't settled on a next step.
"Maybe something will inspire me," he said.
Local school staple “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” from 1939 hits the big screen nationwide
Most Maine schoolchildren know about the boy lost for more than a week in 1939 after climbing the state's tallest mountain. Now the rest of the U.S. is getting in on the story.
Opening in 650 movie theaters on Friday, "Lost on a Mountain in Maine" tells the harrowing tale of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who spent nine days on Mount Katahdin and the surrounding wilderness before being rescued. The gripping story of survival commanded the nation's attention in the days before World War II and the boy's grit earned an award from the president.
For decades, Fendler and Joseph B. Egan's book, published the same year as the rescue, has been required reading in many Maine classrooms, like third-grade teacher Kimberly Nielsen's.
"I love that the overarching theme is that Donn never gave up. He just never quits. He goes and goes," said Nielsen, a teacher at Crooked River Elementary School in Casco, who also read the book multiple times with her own kids.
Separated from his hiking group in bad weather atop Mount Katahdin, Fendler used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive. He made his way through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where he started. Bruised and cut, starved and without pants or shoes, he survived nine days by eating berries and lost 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
The boy's peril sparked a massive search and was the focus of newspaper headlines and nightly radio broadcasts. Hundreds of volunteers streamed into the region to help.
The movie builds on the children's book, as told by Fendler to Egan, by drawing upon additional interviews and archival footage to reinforce the importance of family, faith and community during difficult times,... Read More