It has been some time since I read In Mind We Trust, the sequel to Justice Is Mind. As Justice Is Mind was the first feature film I wrote, produced and directed, I couldn’t help but be proud of the accomplishment. But even more interesting today than when I wrote it, is how much I enjoy the story itself.

The “thought identification” technology that Justice Is Mind was based on, was from a 2009 60 Minutes broadcast I came across. Suffice it to say, that technology has certainly progressed towards the standards I prophesized in Justice Is Mind. In fact, I wrote a paper about the subject this year for a government agency (that I will not name here) to review.

When I reflect on those Justice Is Mind years, they truly were something to be remembered. From the hundreds of people who submitted for the various roles, to the over 200 people involved in the production, to the domestic theatrical screenings that culminated in an international premiere on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth in 2014.

It was some years after that before I produced my second feature film First Signal. Again, even though the world was in a bit of transition in 2021, that project enjoyed theatrical screenings and a growing online fan base that has propelled it on VOD. That success led to the sequel First Launch and the between series First Report.

With First Launch enjoying a nice ride in the festival circuit, the time has come to prepare and submit In Mind We Trust for festival consideration.  Having just finished rereading the sequel to Justice Is Mind, this is another story in my slate that I would love to see produced. Simply, with the advances in technology and its intersection with the legalities of privacy, the story is more timely now than it was in 2013 when Justice Is Mind was released.  The recent proliferation of articles around this technology could certainly account for the increase in revenue I’ve seen from the distributor in the last several months.

But no matter which script I next take into production, with that comes a certain expectation I place on myself. Of course, I’m proud of both Justice Is Mind and First Signal, but with each new production, you want to step up the game or at least feel that the next one stands out from the previous. Yes, as creatives we are very hard on ourselves and our work. We want it to be the best it can be, but on the other side of it, it’s about managing expectations.

There’s no question, that I’d love to see any one of these stories part of a large production, but I also wouldn’t want the story to be streamlined for a mass audience. Over the last several years “Hollywood” has been “dumbing down” or “messaging” mainstream films in an attempt to attract the widest possible audience.  But as that strategy isn’t working from a box office point of view, the industry I think, and hope, has started to change. I point of course to Oppenheimer.

When one considers that a biographical movie about the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer grossed nearly $1 billion at the box office in 2023, I’d say moviegoers not only want to be entertained, but learn something new in the process.

Next feature.