The roots of the story of ST. VINCENT were inspired by a life-altering moment in writer/director/producer Ted Melfi’s own life. When his older brother passed away at the age of thirty-eight seven years ago, he went to the funeral and realized his eleven year-old niece had nowhere to go. Melfi and his wife quickly decided to adopt her and move her from a small, rural town in Tennessee to where they lived in Sherman Oaks, California. Once enrolled in Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Melfi’s niece received a homework assignment with the following prompt: Find the Catholic saint that inspires you, and find someone in your real life that mimics the qualities of that saint. She picked St. William of Rochester, who is the Patron Saint of Adopted Children, and selected Melfi as the match.

A very moved Melfi realized that it was the perfect idea for a movie. Instead of characters like himself and his niece though, he wanted to use an old curmudgeonly guy who’d lost his will to live and a young boy. Bill Murray seemed to be perfect for the role. Recalls the filmmaker: “That’s the genesis of the story: this young boy moves in next to this cantankerous alcoholic played by Bill Murray, and they become best friends. This little adopted eleven year-old boy makes Bill Murray the saint in his assignment, and they both change each other’s lives. That’s how this whole project started - from a homework assignment.”