Are you ready to go Dino?

A couple of months ago I had an idea for a kids TV show which, as these things do, grew and grew inside my head until I had no choice but to put pen to paper and start sketching. Yesterday I had my first pitch meeting, with a rather well known UK kids channel.
It actually went better than expected. They seem to like it, were very attentive and asked lots of questions (and appeared to like what they heard). The main problem, however, is that they are unable to entirely fund their own animation projects and, as yet, haven't found a partner with which to do so.
I'd created a 20 page bible - mainly thanks to my good friend (and illustration supremo) John Kelly's suggestions - which I left with them, so we'll see what they say. If nothing else, the lady I saw said she would try and help me find some contacts to take it further if they couldn't, which was really sweet of her.
So we'll see...
In other news, I'm told that the 'romantic comedy' project should be being optioned any week now...

30% of Something is Better Than 100% of Nothing...

The other day I found myself playing the good news, bad news game as I spoke on the phone with my producer regarding 'The Romantic Comedy' (as I am now describing it - and how you'll find it is now referred to throughout this blog). So what do you want first? Yeah, like everyone... you want the bad.
Another writer is coming on board to do a re-write. Not to write 'with' me, but to write over me. And as a result of this, my cut of the writing wages has been cut to just 30% of what I would have made before.
Sucks right? Well, not exactly.
So here comes the good news. With the input from this new guy (who is currently writing something for two high-profile American comedians) it looks like we're going to finally get that funding, and we're talking telephone numbers. All of which means that the movie may just get made after all.
It's a bitter pill to swallow, the thought that despite two years hard graft someone can swan in at the last moment, spend a month or two writing and run off with more than half the money. But, at the end of the day, I'm a rookie and am lucky to even get the opportunity to have my name gracing the silver screen so early on in my career. And, like this heading says, 30% of something is better than 100% of nothing!
If this all goes ahead as planned, we could be looking at bagging that 'established British thesp' we always wanted, along with one of our first choices for the lead male (as my producer is currently acting with him in what promises to be next year's sleeper horror comedy hit, Doghouse).
Anyone's who's followed this blog from the outset will understand that this could well just be another 'up' blip on the treacherous road to getting a movie made, with another 'down' blip just around the corner. But who knows...

Chillin'

For the last three weeks I've been working on a re-write of a script I cobbled together some five years ago(a horror movie, originally entitled Chiller). This time I'm working with a good friend who has some not inconsiderable standing in the industry and - as such - is really helping to turn this thing into a solid and pretty viable screenplay. Today we hit the midpoint and with any luck, in a few more weeks, we should have it done and dusted. What happens then is anyone's guess. It's been a really interesting time and, although we often have to battle with external forces beyond our control, when we're hammering on the keyboard, it really feels like the mojo is flowing.
As for the romantic comedy? Well, it looks like we may get a little help in the comedy stakes thanks to a writer considerably more experienced in that genre possibly lending a helping hand in the next few months. And in addition to that, there's a sniff of a well-known actor who's interested in reading the script when it's complete (who, funnily enough, is someone who we've always considered for the lead from the beginning).
As for Highlander? I've had a change of heart and will, at some point, continue to work on it. If there's one thing I've learned thus far it's that nothing is certain in this game, and just because the writer's of Iron Man have the ball right now, it doesn't mean it won't be back in play at some point in the future.

There Can Be Only One... and it won't be mine

It was bound to happen. Having spent the best part of two months writing my version of a Highlander redux (yes, that's what I've been going on about in my last few posts) it looks like I've been beaten to the punch.
News broke yesterday of Summit Entertainment's latest project, a reworking of Highlander which will be written by Iron Man scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. It's actually a bit of a coup for Highlander producer Peter Davis as Iron Man's currently running something like $500 million worldwide. With credentials like that it could really push Highlander back up from the Z list franchise its become.
Still, I am utterly gutted. I knew, going into a spec script, that something like this could happen. But what upsets me more is that the ideas (some of which I thing are pretty clever) that I came up with for a Highlander remake will never see the light of day.
One can only presume that the movie will emerge around the original film's 25th anniversary (2011). It'll be a long wait, but I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it.

In you own time

This morning I tried out something new. In my relentless attempts to cover all bases creatively, I managed to get myself in the door at Big Finish's studios to record some background dialogue for one of their Stargate audio releases.
Basically this just involved me standing in a small wooden booth and shouting "Kill Her!!" loudly into a mic for about 10 minutes. But, despite it's rung position at the bottom of the acting ladder, it was still an interesting excercise and something I'd definately like to develop. As my two boys would attest, I like to do the voices, although I'm not sure there's much need of PC Plod in the world of Stargate.
In other news... more notes on the romantic comedy... draft seven, here we come!

Out of the Blue

Only the other day someone asked me about the romantic comedy and I sighed heavily and explained that, while the sixth draft is done, it now sits waiting for someone to throw some money at it. "Something could happen with it tomorrow, or not for years" I said.
Then last night I got a brief email from my producer asking me to put together a new synopsis as he had someone that might be interested in making it.
It seems that this is how this particular industry works (at least on my low rung of the ladder). Up one minute, down the next.
Frankly, right now, I could do with the 'up' side of that, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed, although not without the hefty chunk of skepticism that I've had to incorporate into the 'dream' of this project becoming a reality.
In other news, Sword of Bad is on track for coming in woefully short of its expected 120 pages (we're talking almost half of that)! At this point it's only a bare-bones pass at the first draft, but even so it's the first script I've written which hasn't naturaly hit its page count.

... and breath

I discovered this morning that, despite being a relatively inactive passtime, writing is my stress relief. For my wife it's running, for me it's pulling something out of my head and clattering it into the keyboard.
With regular writing time becoming a questionable thing in upcoming months, I decided to get on with a project I've been stalling on for too long. I hinted at it in one of my previous posts (or was it the last one? Who knows). I managed to splurge out a 17-page outline which I'm now working from to pen the script. I'm still being secretive about it though, since this is viewable to anyone who happens to type the right words into Google. Thus, it will be knows as Sword of Bad, for reasons best known to me.
And it's coming on nicely (although I'm worried that I'm progressing too quickly through the plot). I'm really only interested in laying it down at this point, and have given myself four weeks (or so) to finish it. Thereafter I can spend what spare hours I can find sprucing up the relevant areas and making it more complete.
No news on the romantic comedy, it seems to have gone into limbo. Maybe something will pop up around this year's Cannes... who knows.

www.grantkempster.com

Yes, I am now a website.
After years of meaning to get around to putting together a website with my portfolio and other bits on, I finally made the push (with a little poke from some friends) and bought www.grantkempster.com for the next five years. Early days yet, so just a 'coming soon' page, but it's fun to have a little corner (well, it's not even a corner is it? More a footprint, and a small one at that) on the web.
In other news, the word on draft five of Socialite has been quite positive, and with a few tweaks done last week, we now have a draft six. It's turned in and I'm just waiting for some feedback from my producer. There's also been talk of a large chunk of the funding being in place... could this be the year? Previous experience tells me not to count on anything, not that I'm not secretly hoping it will all come together...