Hollywood veterans film part of documentary in this SC city about 1986 NY Giants Super Bowl team
Sam Sokolow is on a mission.
The two-time Emmy-nominated producer wants to bring Hollywood movie production to South Carolina.
His most recent effort is filming parts of a documentary based on a book about the Super Bowl XXI winning New York Giants at Hotel Hartness in Greenville.
Sokolow and his wife actress and writer Julia Fowler moved from Los Angeles to South Carolina two years ago to be closer to her family in Gaffney. He is now a professor of practice in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Clemson University.
The book, “Once A Giant,” chronicles the team that included Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor and Pepper Johnson and was coached by the legendary Bill Parcells. The 1986 season Super Bowl win over the Denver Broncos was Parcells’ first.
Written by Gary Myers, the book recounts the team’s win, as well as the hardships some players faced after football, including injuries, addiction and legal issues. But the overriding feeling of the book and the documentary is the enduring brotherhood of the players, 40 years later.
“They care about each other and they still take care of each other,” Sokolow said. “They know they were special.”
George Martin, who spent his entire 14-year career as a defensive end with the Giants, said it’s as if they are in suspended animation.
“We pick up where we left off,” he said.
Martin was born in Greenville and is known in that Super Bowl for intercepting Denver quarterback John Elway and running 78 yards for a touchdown.
The camaraderie was apparent in videos shared by the hotel showing the teammates laughing, remembering and just generally catching up.
Johnson said a key factor in the team’s success was Parcells recruiting players based not only on talent but also in “who fit the room.”
Hotel Hartness is a 73-room hotel, conference center and spa on Greenville County’s Eastside. It was just named to Travel + Leisure’s 2026 list of 500 best hotels in the world.
“Hosting a project of this caliber is incredibly meaningful for our team,” said Michael Bonasia, general manager of Hotel Hartness. “We are honored to play a role in bringing this story to life, especially one that celebrates such a legendary team and its lasting impact.”
He said he’s a lifelong New York Giants fan, making the filming particularly special to him.
The film is being produced by Winter State Entertainment and directed by Academy Award–nominated Alec Sokolow and Sam Sokolow, who are brothers. Alec was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay of Toy Story.
Their parents are Mel and Diane Sokolow, who worked as producers in the 1970s.
They said in a news release the film shows “how the players and their families, and the values and lessons they learned, resulted in their on-field heroics and led to extraordinary friendships and a brotherhood that has lasted until this very day.”
Sokolow said in a TEDx talk at Unity Park in Greenville in February that South Carolina has the three most important things in becoming a center for movie production, including a strong state-supported film commission, plenty of storytellers and a workforce “that can make films at the highest level.”
That’s where Sokolow’s teaching in Clemson’s World Cinema program comes in. He was an executive producer of National Geographic’s “Genius” series, which ran on National Geographic for four seasons and featured Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Aretha Franklin, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
He is focusing on educating students on the production side of filmmaking.
About Once A Giant, he said some of the stories are heartbreaking, but he has never seen a team with a stronger bond than the 1986 Giants.