So Miramax don’t want to make The Dark Side of the Earth. “Tonally, it is not a Miramax sort of film.”
More Back to the Future fun here.

If you were amused by the Superman Returns video blog I recommended to Soul Searcher journal readers in February, check out this sequelific Hot Fuzz blog.
And on the subject of Peter Jackson, I would also like to recommend The Frighteners Director’s Cut DVD. Although the film is weakened by the extra material which has been reinstated, it’s worth the purchase because the second disc contains The Funniest Blooper In The Annals Of Cinema: Michael J. Fox genuinely forgets what film he’s in during scenes with The Judge and yells, “DOC!!!!”

I had a meeting today with Lee Thomas from Screen West Midlands. After twice being turned down by their script development fund, I had given up on the agency, but new big boss Jonnie Turpie told me at a Rural Media event a couple of months back that in spite of those two rejections, the production funding was administered by different people and it was still worth me looking into that. And here was the second surprise: Screen West Midlands do fund feature film production, contrary to what I’d been led to believe in the past.
Lee, who I met briefly in Cannes last year, told me that – as a result of Soul Searcher – SWM were keen to provide me with some financing if they possibly could. His initial reaction to the Dark Side treatment was one which others had previously hinted at, but no-one had put as clearly before. The story combines an epic, effects-heavy, action-adventure genre with a small, “rite of-passage” character element. (A deliberate decision.) Problem is, an expensive FX genre movie needs to find a wide audience in order to make a profit, whereas the quirky characterisation I’m aiming for tends to only interest a more narrow audience, hence it traditionally being the realm of low budget films.
Put bluntly, in order to get the film made, I may have to make the characters more stereotypical.
In other news, I’m following a couple of new leads in respect of producers and name actors. By the way, the companies with whom I had promising meetings over the summer seem to have lost interest.

Bang, bang, pop, bang. Must be almost fireworks night.
A Mr. James Furlong has won the Soul Searcher “Guess The Budget Competition”, a challenge only slightly more difficult – for anyone who’s watched the DVD extras – than those multiple choice quizzes you get at the end of CSI. “Was the victim killed by (A) a screwdriver, (B) a bus driver or (C) Minnie Driver?”
The correct answer (to return to Soul Searcher) was