The idea for Serpentine came to me out of the blue after I attended the World Figure Skating Championships in Boston in 2016. Where did the idea initially come from? Certainly, there’s my work in the sport as founder and publisher of International Figure Skating magazine that put me in the center of that universe. But then, it was my fascination with the Cold War and political intrigue that rounded out the rest. One thing I concluded this week was that the film festival market has embraced the story.

Like most filmmakers, I use Film Freeway to submit to film festivals. Whether you have a feature, short film, or screenplay, Film Freeway is the hub for submission and consideration by the industry. I was paying close attention to the end of July as three festivals were going to make their decisions. With two additional acceptances and a win, Serpentine just got that much closer to production reality. When one considers the number of films and screenplays festival juries need to watch or read, an acceptance alone is worth everything.

But when Dreamz Catcher International Film Festival notified me yesterday that Serpentine won the Attainment Award for Best Screenplay, that was truly special. This is a festival, like several others, that invited me to submit Serpentine after Film Freeway announced, through a marketing program I participated in, that I had another screenplay to submit. As I have learned, once a film festival knows the type of work you produce or write, they’ll invite you to submit. While there’s never a guarantee of acceptance, never mind a win, it is nice to be part of a filmmaking family that supports your work and encourages you to continue your craft. Thank you, Dreamz Catcher!

As I mentioned in my last post, I plan to start writing the revitalized First World screenplay soon. While I have countless notes, I’ll confess that I’m a bit nervous to start. As this story will represent the culmination of a single thought I had in 2006 with the original version, since the production of First Signal, the story has grown to represent a diverse array of historical and contemporary issues. For me, the challenge is to unite all these threads and thoughts into a concluding story that is enjoyable for both the reader and eventual theatergoer.  

I enjoy extended, involved stories. Whether it’s a book or a movie, I like the fact that I sometimes need to go back fifty pages to reeducate myself on a fact or statement. Just like rewatching a movie to pick up the most minute of nuances to find that one nugget of information to bridge it all together. With books, it was Challenger by Adam Higginbotham; with movies, it’s Interstellar by Christopher Nolan.

Speaking of the storied filmmaker, a friend and I went to see The Odyssey last weekend. It’s a true Nolan film with a variety of interesting messages. Personally, as a standalone story, we thought it worked. However, like other films that dive into that era (I’m also thinking of Jason and the Argonauts), there are simply things that stay true to the mythical legends and those that are dramatized for countless reasons. There was certainly endless media about The Odyssey before its release, but in the end my friend and I awarded it 3 out of 4 stars. At the end of the day, the story worked, and the box office agrees.

Next word.