I want to pick up where I left off on this SKINWALKERS movie
thing. There have been a lot of changes since the last update, one of them
being a name change to THEY WHO WALK AMONG US.
In case you forgot, here's the logline for the story: A young
music star is forced to use her clairvoyant gifts to save her teenage sister
from an ancient supernatural force that is terrorizing their North Carolina
home town.
The reason for this name change is that the SKINWALKERS name had
already been used by several movies and TV shows. The new name is based on the
same Navajo mythology—He who walks among us on all fours—is basically the
English translation of "yee naaldooshii," or Skinwalker. We just tweaked it a little to fit the story.
With the last post, I talked about filming here in my
hometown, where the true events took place. Unfortunately, that's no longer feasible,
for a host of reasons, not the least of which are the loss of the tax
incentives for movie makers in North Carolina. Hopefully we will get those back
in the future.
When I first wrote the screenplay, I had figured on a budget
of no more than $500,000, which is still a hell of a lot of money, but is
considered a low budget for a film. With all of the entities now involved in
this project, that budget has ballooned all the way up to $4 million, and
deflated all the way down to $300,000. Now it is pretty solidly settled
somewhere in the middle.
Getting there, however, has been quite the roller coaster
ride. Back in Feb. 2017, I had just hooked up with Billy Lewis of Orange Street
Films and we were deep into the process of making the script as good as it
could possibly be.
Enter producer Jonathan Landau (no, not the guy who produced
Titanic!) who had helped Billy produce his latest film, THE TERRIBLE TWO. Once
I had incorporated the changes that Billy asked for in the screenplay, Jon
jumped on board and helped hone it even more. We worked on it for a solid six
months, got coverage from a couple of Hollywood producers and eventually said, "Okay,
it's done!" At least for now.
This being my second screenplay, I have learned that nothing
is ever really 100% done. Other producers will request changes, actors will
have input, even distributors will want to add or remove things from the
script.
First we had to incorporate, which meant getting a lawyer,
filling out lots of papers, and agreeing on who would do what.
Once that was done, we all three made phone calls to various
people, Jon and Billy to their business connections, and me to...well, anyone
who would listen. We eventually teamed up with another producer named Reid
Doyle, who played one of the leads in THE TERRIBLE TWO, and a couple of
production companies based in Raleigh, who really loved the screenplay.
Then, it was time to find the money.
We have managed to get a great actor on board, Jesse C. Boyd,
who stars in the hit TV Series "Day 5," and an amazing special effects
make-up guy named Damian Fisher, who has
worked on movies like "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," "Suicide
Squad," "Captain America: Civil War," "Ant Man,"
"Jurassic World" and more.
One of the first ways we raised money was through a Go Fund
Me campaign. We ended up raising over $5,000 through that, plus another $5,000
from a private investor, which really helped get the ball rolling.
We have basically spent the last year making phone calls,
taking people to dinner, doing fundraisers, sending emails - anything we can to
help fund this movie. Jon, Billy and Reid even drove down to Elizabeth City
from Wilmington to do a private showing of their new film, THE TERRIBLE TWO, where
we met up with one of our executive producers/investors, my band-mate and
friend, Barret Kidd. We had a great time!
So now, here we are a year later, on the verge of finalizing
our budget and beginning pre-production, which I will be blogging about in the
coming weeks and months ahead. Stay tuned!
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