The Rough Draft

You might be wondering where I’ve been for the last month or so. After all, this page gets updated on a pretty regular basis. Well, it all started with a call from my Agent…

Let it be said that while agents are a much maligned group and called all kinds of names I’ve never met a more hardworking bunch of people. Mine has yet to make a dime from me and he’s still looking out for my career. The phone call went like this:

“I’ve got these young guys. They’ve got everything in place, funding, distribution but their script needs work, a lot of work. It’s really dark, and when I think of dark, I think of you.”

“Uh thanks… But.” Because there’s always a but.

“They can’t pay anything.” Which is the usual state of affairs in Canadian film.

“But they’ve got everything in place. Who is the distributor?”

“Think Film.”

“The Think Film?”

“Yes.”

“What’s their number?”

That’s right. There’s no money in this gig for me what so ever. But what it does offer is a feature credit distributed by a respected Production company. So I made the call and set up a meeting. The scratch and sniff went well and we followed that up with a couple of story meetings to nail down what everybody wanted to say and to meet the needs of the Production company putting up the cash for the project. Once the outline was signed off on I had to buckle down and write, write, write.

Fifteen days later (yesterday afternoon) I handed them a completed Script. We did the line edit in the office right then and there. My day ended at around nine thirty last night but we’re basically done. A couple of short scene revisions and the script is locked.

Oh yeah you’re wondering, “What needs?” Well my only instructions were more nudity, more gore. Yep, I am not adapting the latest Emile Bronte novel here. I’m doing a slasher pic. Which I’ve got to admit is a gas to write. Stuck for plot? Add some nudity or kill somebody. It’s great! And further more, it’s all Canadian. Sure it might go straight to video but you know what. I’m betting it doesn’t because everybody involved in the making of this film is switched on. I’m not the only one not getting paid. Nobody is getting paid and when that’s the case, it’s got to be about the art of it.

Sure it’s a horror flick but Cronenberg is the master of horror and also a Canadian, they still show his stuff from the seventies on TV and nobody calls it schlocky now. Horror’s a great way in. It worked for Cameron, De Palma, etc. Why not for us. That’s right us. The team, because this is a team effort all the way. We may laugh at the effort a decade down the road but I doubt it. You never talk ill about the things you love.

We go to camera May 31st. I’ll keep you posted on the developments as they happen.

Good luck, good writing and don’t give up.

Steve Abbott