10 Days in Decemeber

Announcing my next Feature Film.

My wife will probably kill me for posting this. She says I announce things to soon. Which is true! Last year I think I announced three different films I was planning on making! The problem with those was the budget. All large multi-million dollar pictures. And while I would love to make each and every one, it's far from realistic right now.

So, my wife and I had been working on a script, something smaller, something that would require a camera and some actors and not much more. Something I could do on my vacation time from work.

So we worked out the story, it came quiet easily, being as it is about how we fell in love! A romantic story of two people from different backgrounds, different worlds with entirely different beliefs and views on the world and how they came together and fell in love, over 10 perfect days in December in Ireland. Beautiful!

Then I started writing the screenplay and very quickly got stuck. 10 pages in it was going nowhere, so I started again, 10 new pages in and I got stuck again. It was frustrating, I kept thinking it needed a hook, something different, something that maybe hadn't happened to us, but would draw people in, as if two people falling in love wasn't enough.

So I started to think about abandoning the idea, doing something else. I looked at a another story I wanted to tell and started tinkering with that. But again, it was a period piece, and something that would require a large budget and a great deal of planning, pre production and design. I was making things complicated for myself. I like to do that!

But I still couldn't think of the hook for this script. What could I add to make it a movie. I put it out of my mind. Figured it would come to me. Then today I watched the BAFTAS on BBC. I always enjoy the BAFTAS, especially when Stephen Fry is presenting. And it wasn't until the finaly award for best picture and Boyhood, when a very eloquent Ellar Coltrane talked about how films without hugely dramatic effects or deep tragedies could be compelling and entertaining, and how films about simple everyday life could work. And I realised he was right. Then Mike Liegh came on stage to receive the Fellowship Award, and here's someone who has built a legendary career on normal people leading normal lives and make truly compelling films.

I had been putting too much thought into it. Worrying too much and preventing myself from making films. I think that comes from much more than just looking for a hook. It comes from this self doubt I've developed over the last while. But that doubt is beginning to ebb. As life gets better and things settle down, I'm feeling creative again, I'm feeling braver again and I think it's time to make a film again.

So I would like to announce that, without a script yet, '10 Days in December' will be my next film.

I will co-write the script with my wife, Maryann, and we will simply tell our story, which I think is plenty good enough without any Hollywood twists thrown in for good measure!

We plan to shoot this year. We will shoot for one week here in the states, and for two weeks in Ireland around Christmas time. 

Ahead will be casting (all male and female roles for people in the mid 20s early 30s, Irish Male lead 29ish, American Female lead, 24ish - details to follow) with fundraising, planning and of course, writing to come!

It's going to be a difficult one, I'll be producing from here in California and will most likely need a producer on the ground in Ireland to help get things set up. But I'm looking forward to it, and I'm excited about it! I've been thinking about this one for a long time, in fact, while going through notebooks recently I came across an entry talking about how it might make a good script, it was dated 2007!

So here's to the next film, a touching love story, about two people from different worlds who fall in love over 10 days at Christmas in Ireland, to the back drop of friends, family, parties, pubs, food and drink, cold wet days and warm winter nights. I think it's a special story, and one were looking forward to sharing with you. And of course, if you know us... Spoiler Alert... You know how it all works out!!! But there'll be a few surprises in there too.

Romantic, funny, heartfelt, occasionally dramatic and heart breaking its going to be a fun story to tell. We hope you'll join us on the journey and over the next year help and support us along the way.

Thanks for reading.