With few connections in the film business and limited experience in feature film production, we set out, like countless others, to make a movie and begin our careers in Hollywood.
If we knew what we were in for prior to beginning the process, we might not have ever survived it. Based on sheer guts, a little luck, a dash of naivety and a whole lot of heart, we began our adventure into the craziness of independent filmmaking.
The first step was looking for the coveted material that would be our ticket to success. Our first ascent was reached when we came across a script titled "Boy in the Box" written by Glenn Taranto. (We renamed it "Stolen" for our film.) A heart-breaking mystery-thriller about two fathers who lose their sons was the type of page-turning material that turned our heads and fueled our passions into taking the next step on our long journey.
We knew that in order for us to overcome our anonymity as filmmakers, we needed a script that had the potential for deep character development that would attract strong talent.
So we loaded our arsenal with as much depth and breadth as we could muster and then sent it off to the best actor that was within six degrees of separation from us.
Enter Josh Lucas, the "Sweet Home Alabama" star with a million-dollar smile and priceless baby blues. A colleague of ours had met Josh a few weeks earlier about a film he was working on, so we asked if he would send Josh our script.
Luck was on our side: Josh responded quickly and, within days, we were giving it all we had to convince Josh that this movie was for him.
In the days leading up to this pitch, we discussed what was necessary in order for first-time filmmakers like us to convince someone like Josh to trust in the vision we had for the film without having any prior work to show him. Our only bet was to assemble a montage of images from photos, paintings and movies, combine it with music we thought would represent the score, and then cross our fingers that Josh would believe in our vision and our ability to deliver.
Seeing that we were serious about this process and determined to get this film made, Josh gave us the thumbs up, extending our film lives another day.
That simple display of acceptance from one talented actor put us on the fast track to getting our film made.
At this point, we figured our luck was pretty much used up, since we now possessed a strong script and a great actor. Everything else would be a cherry on top. Little did we suspect that we would end up getting sprinkles, chocolate sauce, more ice cream, more sprinkles and whipped cream.
The cast we were able to assemble was beyond our wildest dreams.
Jon Hamm, James Van Der Beek, Rhona Mitra, Morena Baccarin, Jimmy Bennett ... Even a blockbuster studio pic would be lucky to assemble such a cast, yet those are the actors we had going into production.
