I've mentioned here in the past a couple New Projects that I'm working on and one of them is coming together very well. The other one is moving forward, but there has been the usual hiccups along the way.

I don't want to give away too many details at this stage, mainly because if you're at all familiar with the film business you know everything can (and often does) fall apart.

I can say on New Project #1 (the one that is going very well) we have a first draft of the script done and we're now working on a 2nd pass. I'm very excited about the script (working with a good writer based in LA). All the content is there. This is the project that I optioned the Life Story Rights to a member of a famous Texas family. That's all I can say about that. So, again, the content is there... we're just trying to figure out the structure of the script. We do not want this to be a typical "boring" biopic: Hero is born, Hero lives and does something good/bad/crazy/exciting, then Hero dies, blah, blah, blah.

We want this to be interesting, emotional, engaging, and above all entertaining.

If all goes well I'd love to shoot this project in late summer or early fall. We'll see...

The second New Project is actually being financed by another production company. They are (potentially) hiring me to direct a script I've written. At one point about two months ago I almost had the greenlight. Then, things changed, and they wanted to produced a different project. One that fit thier "slate of films" better. So, that project (an action-comedy-heist script) got put on hold. But, they like another project of mine and we're now talking about doing it.

This one is an action-police-drama. I actually do not have a full script done - just a detailed treatment. So, I'm working on this script to submit to their production execs soon. They definitely are interested in producing it, but of course they'll need to approve the final screenplay.

This will be my first real "Hollywood" experience. Even though they are an indie production company, they run it like a studio. So, in other words, they call all the shots because they're paying the tab. Should be an interesting experience. It will definitely be nice to not worry about raising the funds to make a film. I'll actually be able to simply concentrate on directing. What a concept? :)

-Blake

Do you like this article? Share It!