My regular readers will know that I’ve been working on a major project recently to turn three cult novels into a trilogy of screenplays. Well, last week I met up with the producer and had feedback on the first draft of my screenplay which covers the first book.
I’d had some feedback on the script already from writer friends, and the producer himself sent it to a few of his industry contacts for feedback.
The script was compared to Pulp Fiction, Mean Streets and In Bruges (which surprised me slightly). The feedback was generally very good, the script was edgy, funny and moved at a great pace.
The producer had a lot of feedback on the first five pages, which for reasons to do with the overall theme we’re developing have to be changed, but he had less notes as the script went on. We discussed a few aspects that I wasn’t sure if he’d like to change, but the producer was more than happy with the decisions I’d made on the first draft. The producer felt that (in me) he’d got the right writer for the project.
So where do we go from here? Getting a film made is a marathon not a sprint, and lots of projects sometimes fail to get over the finish line. For now the producer is approaching broadcasters, if we have no joy there we’ll look at the other avenues available for financing. So, for now I’ve got a slight redraft to do before delivering a script we’re both happy with.
Keep following the blog, and I’ll keep you updated about this project…
Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer. He’s also a leading UK script consultant. You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb. You can get in touch with Matthew on matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk or hire him on Peopleperhour