It couldn’t have gone any better. The three of us met in a bar in Cardiff last night and went through some ideas. It was good to meet the director so early on, as this project’s still quite new - especially considering I’m not working on it full time. Actually I know exactly when it started - it was at the Wales party in Cannes about six weeks ago, on the night Cardiff City (almost) won the cup final.

I say “this project” - all we knew until last night was that we wanted to make a low budget film. We went through the handful of ideas we’d cooked up since Cannes, and settled on one that seemed to fit well with the way the producer wants to work. So we developed it from a straight drama to a concept drama - without changing the essence of it of at all. It’s now much more focused though. Basically a one-liner, but in a good way I think. Hopefully that simplicity will keep us on track in the development stage.

The main pitfall, as we see it right now,  is to do with tone.  The concept treads on thin ice in terms of conventional ethics, so it’s not going to be easy to write, but nothing ever is, so what the heck. We discussed films that could be used as shorthand reference points, and the upshot is that we’re all beginning to “see” it, I think.  It feels like a kind of adventure already. Who knows where it will go.  As long as it goes somewhere I’m not too concerned at the moment…

The producer, director and I are aiming to have our first face-to-face meeting some time next week. I’ll try and throw in one more suggestion before then. I know of a great location for an apocolyptic film, which we could use as a basis for the story. Only thing is, the location owner is a businessman and probably not a great sympathizer of Guerilla filmmaking, which is perfectly understandable.  Anyway, we might be able to set our sights a little higher budget-wise. Might know a bit more after the meeting.

I saw part of Children of Men the other night. It would be cool to come up with something similar in terms of conceit, as it’s the kind of subject matter you always think of as lending itself to a low budget. But of course Children is anything but low budget. Even 28 Days Later was relatively expensive for a British drama. It makes you wonder if you should go for a semi-documentary style and just let the actors improvise it all. Which is not a particularly smart idea for a writer to put forward…

My Saskatchewan baby is growing up fast, and turning into something I can’t control. Namely a low-concept North American period piece that’s lost its ”based on a true story” lure.  Who on earth is going to want to distribute this thing now? It could possibly work as a festival film - not an “art film”, just a movie done in the style of those Hollywood films of the late 60s/early 70s. The ones where the studios let the makers get on with it: Easy Rider, Bonnie & Clyde, Alice’s Restaurant…

In crude shorthand, it’s currently Into the Wild meets Thelma and Louise.  What I think I’ll do is just write it exactly as I would like to see it on the screen and be done with it. If I get interest from a producer, then fine - I’ll take it from there. Pursue it, sell it, whatever. If nobody takes it, then at least it’ll be mine and I’ll use it as a sample script for reference. They’re funny things, unproduced screenplays - pristine and perfectly useless.