Saturday, July 18, 2015

It's not everyday you get an email From The Academy...




It's not everyday that you get an email from the Academy, but I did yesterday. This is what it said:


For any of you unaware what this is, it means our script HELD is doing AWESOME!!!  This would be a grand event in itself if we hadn't just recieved word from another very prestigious screenwriting competition, PAGE Internationl Screening Awards, just the day before.




This is just unbelievable, It has made its way through nearly 8'000 scripts to make it to the quarter-finals of this one, too. Our "little script that could" has just beat out 16'000 other scripts to fight its way up this creative ladder. I couldn't be more excited and it makes me so happy, not because I am patting myself on the back, but out of all the movies I've written this is the one the world needs to see. 

Here is the backstory to how it became a screenplay.

This script has a journey of it's own that started 15 years ago. 
My writing partner on this project, Susannah, found the seed of this story on a tiny card on the wall of a Holocaust survivors museum 15 years ago. She wrote it down on the back of an envelope (which she eventually lost) but never forgot the story. She relayed it to me one evening in 2010, and I couldn't sleep that night I was so stirred by it. I called her the next day and said,
"We have to write this; this story needs to be out in the world."
We then sat down and outlined the whole thing, creating a bigger, more compelling story around that seed idea and wrote the whole thing in ONE week. I know people say this, but it is true, this story wrote itself. It is one of those stories that has a magic of its own, another worldliness, that makes you sit back and say, "I don't think we wrote that on our own." 
I have written seven screenplays but this is the one that always tugs at my heartstrings. 
And even though it has been on a five-year journey so far, we know, without a shadow of a doubt, IT WILL GET MADE ONE DAY because it needs to be in the world to inspire us. It is just a matter of time, when. 

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Behind the Scenes from the movie Half and Half

So excited that one of my latest film project - "Half and Half" is shooting this weekend in Ireland. I have the honor of being the Executive Producer and also a member of the writing team on this film that was produced and directed by Soldier Monkeys Productions. Here is a behind the scene shot from yesterdays shoot.

In this shot Declan Reynolds is playing Mark Dunbar and Anarose De Elizaguirre-Butler is playing Holly Barnes. 

Friday, July 3, 2015




“Always remember to get out of the way of the magic”


Todays guest is a Brummie Lass, for the benefit of my international readers that means a lady from Birmingham (England not Alabama). She is an award winning screenwriter/author (Best Comedy Feature Screenplay Award- L.A International Film Festival 2011, The Gold Award- California Film Awards 2012, The Van Gogh Award- Amsterdam Film Festival 2012). She is also an author who’s debut novel, The Rejected Writer’s Book Club is winning people over with it’s wit and charm. Her laugh is something to hear as it is very infectious and her accent is awesome. Recently returned from the Cannes film Festival, she is working on a number of exciting things and I get to have her to myself for a few minutes. Suzanne Kelman is the lady I’m referring to and we’re having tea (she likes hers with milk, no sugar) whilst we discuss her latest book and everything else that this spark of energy has achieved. 

Read the rest of the interview here:
http://thebreakuprecipe.com/suzanne-kelman-interview/