Mending The Line is an emotional movie that is sure to touch everyone who watches it. It follows John Cotler, an injured Marine who is dead set on returning to combat as soon as his physical wounds heal. When he meets an older fly-fisherman and a photographer turned librarian, he works towards finding something to live for, instead of finding something to die for.

Joshua Caldwell (Infamous) has been working in the entertainment business since 2001. He is an accomplished director, writer, and producer, although he only donned the director hat for Mending The Line. This film releases in theaters on June 9th.

Related: Brian Cox Teaches Sinqua Walls To Fish In Mending The Line [EXCLUSIVE CLIP]

Screen Rant sat down with director Joshua Caldwell to talk about the importance of accurately portraying the two major parts of this film, fly-fishing and military PTSD. He not only revealed that he is a fly-fisherman himself but explained that one of the cast members had experience with the sport as well. Joshua also discussed the phenomenal cast and bringing them on for the movie -- but don't worry, Brian Cox didn't ruin Succession season 4 for him.

Joshua Caldwell Talks Mending The Line

Mending The Line Director Joshua Caldwell Discusses Research That Went Into Making The Film Accurate

Screen Rant: What was it that drew you to want to be a part of Mending The Line?

Joshua Caldwell: Well, I'm a fly fisherman. So I got the script, and it's essentially the second fly-fishing movie ever made. There's been a couple others, but you go okay, I want to be a part of this. But even more than that, as a fly fisherman who loves the sport, I felt like I wanted to make sure that this movie got it right. That it was accurate, because there's been a lot of portrayals beyond River Runs Through It about fly-fishing, and they are not really right. It just felt like if this movie is going to get made, I'd love to really shepherd that to the screen.

Screen Rant: One of my questions was actually going to be if you have ever gone fly-fishing before.

Joshua Caldwell: Yes. Although I started late. I started in 2017, when I moved back to the Hudson Valley area of New York, and was looking for a hobby, and stumbled on fly-fishing. That's when I realized that the Catskills, which is just up from me, is the birthplace of American fly-fishing. The history of the sport being here really got me into it and got me really excited. Now it's become a major passion of mine.

Screen Rant: I'd love to know about the cast, because this movie is filled with incredible people.

Joshua Caldwell: What was really cool about this project is often in the indie space, you're beholden to certain lists of valuable actors, so to speak. Then often it can get very confining as a director looking for the best creative match. One of the really great things about this movie is because of the way that we structured and financed, we were not beholden to the traditional foreign sales model of financing independent movies. We really got to go after the cast that we wanted and that felt right for the film and that we thought would be the best choices for these roles.

Brian Cox , we were obviously super lucky to get. I've been a fan of his for a long time. When he was first pitched to us, we were like, could we actually get him? Is that possible? He ended up really loving the script and wanted to do it and so that allowed us to have him on board. Then everything fell into place from there.

Sinqua Walls was somebody that was pitched to us by our casting director. I had a great conversation with him. The real interesting thing about somebody like Colter is it's walking a very fine line in terms of performance, because you need a guy who feels like a Marine, right? You got to sell that this is a Marine. This is a guy who's a career Marine. He wants to do this. But then the performance in the character calls for an enormous amount of vulnerability, and an emotional performance. So finding the right person for that role can be tricky. Sinqua came in and from that first conversation with him, I knew that he was the guy to play John and really bring this character to life.

From there, you've got Perry Mattfeld, who was on the hit show In The Dark, and was pitched by our fantastic casting director, who really went out of her way to find these great actors. Perry came on board, and it turns out she had actually fly fished before. She had done it a year before in Montana. She'll say, I didn't really fly fish, but that was more experience than anybody else we were looking at had. The challenge of making this movie is that we didn't have six months to train these actors and how to fly cast, so if you had any little experience, you were in. Beyond that, she brought a lot to the role. That awkward friendliness was something that came out of her and her choices. I think it was fantastic.

Patricia Heaton playing the doctor. She so generous and wanting to come on board and be a part of this project. Then finally, Wes Studi. Wes was such a catch for us, no pun intended. When we were looking at characters actors for that role, I'd remembered a review I read of Soul. Wes was one of the voices of the counselors, and I remember the review said, movies need more Wes Studi. And I was like, You're right, so when it came time for that character, I was like, what about Wes? Do you think he would do it? Everybody immediately jumped on the idea and again, Wes very graciously came on board to this little independent film that could.

From there, Irene Bedard. These really great actors really filled out the film. That's what's always cool. When you can get almost an ensemble feeling because you're getting these really, really great actors in these roles.

Screen Rant: Did Brian ruin Succession for you?

Joshua Caldwell: He did not because they hadn't started shooting the fourth season until after that. He definitely played it well and never hinted at anything. He definitely kept that secret, so good on him. But I missed out, obviously. We wrapped in September 2021, and I don't think he started filming that fourth season until mid 2022. So there was some time there.

Screen Rant: Did you guys do like a crash course in fly-fishing for the cast?

Joshua Caldwell: Yeah. I'm a fly fisherman, and Stephen Camelio, who wrote the movie, is a fly fisherman. For us, it was super important that we got this aspect of the movie correct. Because, if you don't, you're missing out on a tremendous opportunity to involve that community, and get the support of that community. If you mess it up, they're not going to come support the film. I really wanted it to be a high level portrayal of fly-fishing.

One of the ways we did that was we sought out really great brand partners. One of those partners was Sage Fly Rods that make fly rods and reels. They provided all the tackle. So all the rods, reels, all that stuff for the film, but they also gave us one of the greatest assets of the film, which was a gentleman named Simon Gawesworth, who's a record holding fly caster. He heads up the education aspect of their company. He was essentially our fly-fishing technical advisor. He was on set, he was teaching, he taught all the cast how to cast. Then on the day he was helping to make sure that it looked right. While I was paying attention to performance, he was watching all the fly-fishing aspects. That allowed us to be as accurate as possible with that.

Mending The Line Director Joshua Caldwell Discusses Research That Went Into Making The Film Accurate

Screen Rant: One of the things I really enjoyed about this film was Sinqua's perfromance of portraying a Marine that feels a need to go back to war. Can you talk about bringing that out of him?

Joshua Caldwell: We did a lot of research on this film. This is not a movie you can just go out and make. I've made movies like that, where you're just making it up. This movie really required an understanding of how the whole thing works, and really getting it right, from a technical perspective. Whether that's performance or whether that's just knowledge. Originally in Stephen's script, the character was already out. He was done. He had been discharged. As I discussed it with Stephen, I was struggling with why would this character ever go fly-fishing? In real life is one thing, but in a movie, you got to operate within the dramatic confines of storytelling.

What we did was we started talking to people about their experience transitioning out, and we met a gentleman who was former U.S. Army who was saying how the first thing you do is you go through a transition period. Just because you're wounded doesn't mean you're out. Physical wounds can heal. He told us how he basically was longing to go back in when he was wounded. He was like, I wanted nothing more than to go back in and continue to be a part of service. We're like, Oh, that's really interesting. So you were thinking you were going back in, even though people around you were very much realizing that you weren't? He said, Yeah, because I was healing from the physical wounds, but mentally, I was not fit for duty. I couldn't see that but the people around me could see that.

That became a real foundational insight that we then brought into the script, because at that point, you'll believe if he wants to get back and that is his true pursuit. You'll believe his identity is as a Marine, and he will be a Marine until he either dies in service of that, or retires. That being the case, you will believe that he'll do anything to get back, including trying to fly fish. That becomes the vehicle by which he pursues his ultimate goal, which is getting back in. But that also becomes the window by which he discovers a whole new identity for himself. It really becomes the vehicle by which he discovers the need to heal, and the mechanism by which that is possible.

A lot of it was just connecting Sinqua to these veterans who had actually gone through this and experienced it and hearing from them and the emotional journey that they went on. You hear about soldiers being very stoic, but we found that to be pretty much the opposite. They were really, really vulnerable with us and shared their story with us and a lot of that ended up making it into the film.

Screen Rant: What do you hope people take away from Mending The Line?

Joshua Caldwell: I think it's twofold. As much as this is a movie about the military and combat and fly-fishing, I think it's actually a much more universal story. Lucy's character represents that. We have all experienced loss, we have all as a world and a civilization gone through a very traumatic couple of years that has impacted us in ways that we can only hint at. I really wanted to take the audience on the same journey that culture goes on. To treat it like the movie is a river that you're floating down, and you get to participate in that. You get to experience the odd nature and the peacefulness of that. I think that's that's one aspect of it.

Second, obviously, in America, we have a very extreme crisis with our veterans groups. We were hearing statistics of 17 to 22 vets committing suicide every day, that's actually been revised up to 44 every day. That is a tragedy for a group of men and women who have really made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. I'm a director, I've never served, I'm not a vet. This movie is not based on any true story, but we found that in some ways, it's based on many true stories. This is happening out there in the world. There are numerous organizations, including warriors and quiet waters project, healing waters, wounded warriors, that are doing this great work in the real world.

You sit down and talk to these guys, these vets that have experienced this, and it is a transformational part of their life. Something as simple as fishing. I like to quote an author named John Gierach who writes about fishing, something as simple as standing in a river and waving a stick can have enormous therapeutic value to these guys. That's the real power behind this. Maybe it's not fly-fishing. It might be surfing or working with horses. They are finding that there is tremendous value from the alternate therapies. They are really changing the lives of veterans around the country.

If this movie in some way can connect to those vets, or connect to somebody that knows a vet, and creates a dialogue and creates a connection between them and gives these guys an opportunity to try and find peace. I think that's ultimately what we'd like to see. At the same time, it's not a documentary. This is meant to quote unquote, entertain, to emotionally connect with the audience, and tell a compelling story. We hope people enjoy the movie. We hope you will share the movie. We definitely want people to see it in theaters. But also know that this is a story that is repeating itself over and over and over again, across the country, and there are a lot of great groups that are doing the hard work of helping to save lives.

Mending The Line Director Joshua Caldwell Discusses Research That Went Into Making The Film Accurate

Screen Rant: My husband is veteran, and my aunt and uncle are veterans. My aunt was run over by a tank, but still wanted to stay in the Marines, so this movie resonated with me.

Joshua Caldwell: That's the thing. I know guys who have been shot, and they just want to go back in. They want to keep doing it. That's a certain level of spirit that exists within these guys. The other thing is that the military and veterans are really particular about how this stuff is portrayed on screen. We were really lucky to partner with the U.S. Marine Corps entertainment Liaison Office. The same way that the Navy partnered with Top Gun, we got to partner with the Marines.

They provided a huge level of tactical advice, and reading the script, and making sure we got all this right. But they also allowed us to come down and shoot the opening scene at Camp Pendleton, at their Afghanistan village simulator set. They provided the vehicles and the Marines and the tents and all kinds of stuff, at no charge to us. What's great about that is we got the endorsement of this story from the military, and we hope that that's a key aspect of sort of letting vets know we're on your side. We're trying to tell it as accurately as possible and trying to be, at the very least, emotionally truthful to what we're showing. Within reason. There's only so much you can do on a movie, you're limited. But we did have buy in from some really great people both on the fly-fishing side and on the military side, that we think is reflected in the film.

About Mending The Line

Mending The Line Director Joshua Caldwell Discusses Research That Went Into Making The Film Accurate

John Cotler (Sinqua Walls), a wounded veteran, returns to the States still carrying the demons of war, hauntingly disturbed by the everyday expectations of friendships and love interests. In Livingston, Montana, he meets Ike (Brian Cox), a surly, headstrong fly-fisherman more than twice his age, and Lucy (Perry Mattfeld), a talented photographer turned librarian who reads aloud to veterans, both damaged in their own way. While getting treatment for his wounds, both physical and psychological, Colter wants only to re-enlist, to have something to die for. But the real challenge is finding something to live for.

Mending The Line premieres in theaters on June 9, 2023.