In a timely change of fortune, Soul Searcher has made the official selection for Escapism, a relatively new film festival taking place in North Carolina, USA. The screening – which will be the film’s US premiere – is just three weeks away. Thanks to Jim and everyone at the Carolina Theatre for selecting the movie. See the screening page for more info.

There’s a new section on this site called Development, which is a compilation of e-mails James and I sent each other during 2002 while we were writing the script. I was putting it together for the DVD, but decided that due to its wordiness it would work better on the web. It’s an interesting look at the writing process of two nutters.

This journal’s getting like Return of the King. Will it ever end? My arse is getting sore.

As the lack of updates suggests, little has happened lately with Soul Searcher. In the US, Aimee is still waiting to hear from some of the big companies before she moves down to the next tier. I have no doubt it will eventually sell over there but it’s going to take a long time. Over here however, the number of distributors yet to pass on the movie is dwindling. “It’s not the film,” one distributor said. “It’s the marketplace. It’s over-saturated.” Things are similarly discouraging on the festival front. Soul Searcher hasn’t been selected for any of the festivals I entered in the spring, not even the genre ones like Fright Fest.

Other than recording commentaries, work on the DVD has not progressed for quite a while due to my computer’s lameness. I plan to get a new one very soon and start editing the documentary again – from scratch, unfortunately, due to a hard drive failure. The Curse is not dead.

Jim Groom’s film Room 36 opened at the Odeon on Panton Street at the weekend. A hilarious black comedy with another great Scott Benzie score – I thoroughly recommend it. Jim was talking about self-releasing it theatrically when I saw him in Cannes but now he’s actually done it. The Curse of Soul Searcher seems mild compared with the hell he went through. It’s taken him eleven years to complete the film. Here’s hoping it continues to do well at the box office.

The journal for Shadowland has been running for a couple of weeks now, but the time is not yet right for it to be unleashed on the world. Stay tuned.

Yesterday I went to a Shooting People screening of Diary of a Bad Lad – remember Mike and John from my Cannes diary? They of the Journal Cross-over. Anyway, their film was excellent. The most convincing fake documentary I’ve ever seen. A good script and fantastic performances. Mike said not to worry that Soul Searcher hasn’t been picked up – he’s met loads of people who’ve made films in the same kind of budget range and can’t seem to get a distribution deal for love nor money.

Mmmm, depth perception. Soul Searcher has not been selected for the Raindance Film Festival. It’s also been rejected by Toronto and Telluride in the last week or two.

Arrrr! Greetings, landlubbers! I be wearing an eye patch due to an operation I had on my eyelids this afternoon, hence my piratical turn of phrase (and probable multitude of typos).

Shiver me timbers if good old George down in Marin County ain’t granted me free clearance to use the Star Wars toys in the scenes in Joe’s flat.

Cows be wily animals. Never trust a cow.

Okay, so I just found out that the major Hollywood studio mentioned in June 21st’s entry has passed on Soul Searcher. Hardly surprising. They still love my work though, so there might be an inroad for my next project. The saga continuums.

Three years ago: just got back from New York and trying to decide whether to go ahead with the film on a microbudget since James had dropped out. Two years ago: looking for a costume maker. One year ago: recording sound effects and dodging druids on Dinedoor Hill. Today: just got back from two weeks of shooting nights on a horror film, having finished the first draft screenplay of The Dark Side of the Earth in my spare time – the doorway to a whole new world of pain – and wondering if Soul Searcher is ever going to get sold. Check out the press page for details of a couple more articles that have gone up on the web about Soul Searcher this month, particularly a glowing review on Only Foreign Film.

Just a reminder that the August issue of Impact is now out with more gushing praise for Soul Searcher, Hong Kong editor Mike Leeder going so far as to say that George Lucas could learn a thing or two from this “ground breaking digital film-making”. Personally, as the Spielberg of Hereford, I’m excited to be just one page-turn away from the Spielberg of… erm, well, just Spielberg. In fact, if you tore one page out it would look like I was filming him. It would look like I was directing and shooting the world’s most famous film-maker. It would look like he was my bitch. I haven’t done that. I’m just saying.

Also, the BBC Hereford & Worcester website has an interview up along with a stills gallery and the trailer.

I finished paying off the Soul Searcher debt last week, MUCH sooner than I ever thought I would. Just now I had a call from Pathe (they of the yellow chicken logo and the wartime news reels) who said they couldn’t take Soul Searcher because it doesn’t fit into what they’re doing right now, but nonetheless they really liked the story, the action and the acting and were impressed at how little it had been made for. They said they are looking for genre stuff to develop so I’m going to send them Nightland.

No news on distribution. As I was compiling the deleted scenes today I started thinking about deleting other scenes. I may snip another 30 seconds out of the movie. James and I could really have done with putting the script through another two or three drafts before we shot it, but hey-ho, you live and learn. I don’t disagree with The Birmingham Post’s assessment that the film is narratively undisciplined.

And talking of disorder, the July issue of (wait for it) Disorder is now out, featuring Angry Dave’s article about me and Soul Searcher. Don’t worry, he’s not angry at me or the film. He’s just angry in general – possibly because a promising career as a Justin Timberlake impersonator was cut short when the hip-hopper had his curly barnet chopped. According to their website, Disorder is “available in all good newsagents, Waterstones, Borders and Virgin Megastores + Rough Trade, Cargo and RD Franks.”