Still contacting people’s agents. I tried a certain Danish Director of Photography whose work I admire, but as usual his LA agent didn’t want to know until I have money. Still waiting to hear if a certain English actor’s agent has read the script, and have just contacted a particular Scottish actor’s agent to see if I might be able to send the script. A small part of me hopes they’ll all say no because if they say yes and then I can’t raise the money to actually make the film and work with them it would be incredibly frustrating.

Today I met up with Mike Tucker and he still doesn’t think I’m crazy, which is very reassuring. The Model Unit have a workshop at Ealing Film Studios; today it was full of Viking longboats and other Celtic miscellany which they are building for a children’s TV show.
Mike led me into the office area, which is dominated by a Dalek. (And let’s face it, how many rooms could you put a Dalek in and not have it dominate?) Red Dwarf artefacts adorned the tops of bookshelves – a large-scale Starbug model, the Emohawk from Polymorph II. After looking at the company’s impressive showreels and portfolio, I showed Mike the concept art which Ian Tomlinson and David Ayling have been producing for the last year. Mike had already seen some of the key images and had read the script, and was extremely enthusiastic about the whole thing. He was particularly pleased to hear that I wanted to completely exclude CGI from the movie, unlike most producers these days, who want precisely the opposite.
A couple of other modelmakers paused in their Celtic constructions to peruse the concept art, and were equally excited about it.
So Mike and his team are on board the good ship Shadowland. They can’t wait for me to get the film financed so they can start work on it.

Spielberg’s agent sent my letter back, but what he didn’t count on was that I also sent a copy directly to the Bearded One at Dreamworks. Like apples, do you? Well how do you like them apples?
Contacted a certain British actor’s agent regarding one of the major supporting roles and was invited to send the script. The agent’s assistant asked what the projected budget and timeframe are, who else is attached, who the producer is and so on – not questions I was able to answer at this stage. Maybe I’m going about this in the wrong order, but then maybe it’s a vicious circle. Can’t get the names until you’ve got the financing; can’t get the financing until you’ve got the names. Or possibly: can’t get the names until you’ve got a budget drawn up; can’t draw up the budget until you’ve got an experienced producer on board; can’t get an experienced producer on board until you’ve got financing; can’t get financing until you’ve got a budget drawn up. Clearly there’s no point in me drawing up a budget…. Production Design:

Called a famous actress’s manager in LA and got told to call back when the film has financing. A similar thing happened a few months ago with a British name actress, only in that case the agent cruelly invited me to send the script, only to send it back to me immediately without reading it. So many people on my hit list for when I’m rich enough to afford an assassin.
Rebekah Tatlow, a survivor of Soul Searcher, is on board for special make-up effects.

I wrote to Steven Spielberg.
Stop laughing. Have you got any better ideas?

Well, Mike Tucker doesn’t think I’m mad, but he wants to meet up, so that could all change…

I know, I know. It’s been an obscenely long time since my last entry. The Soul Searcher DVD had me working flat out throughout January and since then I’ve been taking a well-deserved rest. I did manage to finish the second draft of the Shadowland script a few weeks ago, however. It’s still got at least one major problem in it, but I’ve sorted out all the unanswered questions that the first draft posed. Yesterday I advertised for more concept artists. As expected, some of the original artists have fallen by the wayside, leaving only David Ayling and Ian Tomlinson still working on it at present.
Last week I tracked down Mike Tucker and his company The Model Unit using this new-fangled information superhighway thingy. Mike was one of the main guys behind Red Dwarf’s fantastic model effects and his company now does all the models for Doctor Who – spaceships crashing into Big Ben, the new Daleks, etc. Anyhoo, I wrote to Mike briefly explaining my project and got quite a positive response. I’m now waiting to hear what he makes of the script. I expect he’ll think I’m bonkers.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I’ve been busy working on the Soul Searcher DVD and Shadowland has been somewhat neglected as a result, although David Ayling is still turning in some magnificent concept art. I got the letter from Screen West Midlands yesterday saying my script development grant application has not been successful.

Another letter of rejection for the file. My contact at Film Four, with whom Carl and I had such a positive meeting in Cannes this year, wrote to say that they can’t pick up Shadowland because their “focus at the moment is very much on UK contemporary stories”. However, at least she described the script as “entertaining” and “lively”.

I spoke to someone at Pathe last week. He said the Shadowland script showed my boundless imagination, but had a number of reservations about the plot and characterisation, many of which will be helpful to me, I’m sure. He went on to classify it as “expensive sci-fi” (wrong and wrong) and said it would be better suited to a graphic novel. No-one here but us chickens, then.
After a shaky start, I finally got moving on the second draft of the script today. I already have 26 pieces of concept art in my folder, some of which are feeding ideas back into the screenplay.