Savoy, thanks to the corroboration of the group, was not considered an accomplice in the criminal activity. However, this was a real story, one that Savoy felt connected to and could recount in film form. “So, I took a trip to Cook County jail and I’m talking to them behind the glass on the phone.” Hurt and angry for their deceit which could have caused irreparable harm, Savoy said, “I told them I’d forgive them if they’d give me the rights to make the movie.”
The response—“Dude, we’ve got 33 counts of armed robbery and 16 years in jail. Take it. “[We’ve] got nothing to look forward to.”
Savoy’s interviews allowed them to bare their souls. He learned that initially they stole just to pay the rent, food, and gas, but there was a switch that flipped, and it became more than that. “It started being about the chase, and the rush, and the high. They got to this point that they would break the things that they didn’t steal.” He continued, “One of the guys had mommy and daddy issues so he’d f*** up the family portraits and pictures. One of the guys, his dad would beat the sh** out of him when he was a kid so he’d go to one of the kid’s rooms and he’d f*** up the kid’s room and draw an outline of a parent on the wall and bust the head out. …They’re scarred and it came out in a violent way.” Savoy now had a story to tell.
“Echo Boomers,” starring Michael Shannon, Alex Pettyfer, and Patrick Schwarzenegger was released On Demand November 13, 2020.
Filmmaker Seth Savoy