Emilio Estevez has compared his latest film project to The Wizard of Oz - with his dad playing the part of Dorothy. The 49-year-old actor and Martin Sheen, 70, star as father and son in The Way, which Emilio also wrote and directed.
It follows Martin's character Tom, who embarks on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage and befriends fellow pilgrims along the route, including a writer played by James Nesbitt. "Martin's character is Dorothy, Nesbitt's is the scarecrow, and they're looking for the wizard. Instead of Oz, they're going to Santiago de Compostela," says Emilio.
The idea for The Way came eight years ago when Martin undertook the Camino by car with Emilio's son Taylor and his friend Matt Clark, who also appears in the film as a priest. "The first miracle and the most powerful one was that Taylor met his future wife in a refugio (hostel) in Burgos.
He's been living in Spain for eight years now, and so that really started the whole personal interest," Martin explained. "I came back with stories and I begged Emilio to have a look at this phenomenon and he did, became entranced by it and started reading about it - finally ending up with a father-son story."