The family feature screenplay Rocket Summer has officially sold to eKidsFilms.
Those of you who know the story of Rocket Summer know it’s been around for nearly a decade. My first feature screenplay, it’s been through an option and extension, and myriad rewrites. The past few years it’s sat in my virtual drawer while I worked with my writing partner Sean Meehan on the family road trip screenplay Grampa Was A Superhero, the horror screenplay Faeries and a yet to be titled western-horror mashup screenplay currently in its first draft.
eKidsFilms approached me last month to inquire about the screenplay’s availability. We talked about their vision for the film, and I agreed to do a rewrite to incorporate their notes and modify the third act.
It was fun doing the rewrite with them. It’s one thing to polish a script based on feedback from contest readers, when it’s still yours and you can pick and choose what to listen to. But once the project is placed, and your producer is your client, it adds a new layer of complexity to the edit process. Notes may have as much to do with potential ratings, or budgetary concerns, as they do with storytelling. It’s still your job, as the writer, to maintain your voice and protect your story as best you can (and it helps to be working with people who also love the story), but now it’s got to be tempered with business considerations that frankly just aren’t on your mind when you’re crafting a spec. Now it’s guided by things like being a team player, and finding ways to make the property as appealing to the money people and potential talent as possible.
eKidsFilms was terrific in the flexibility they afforded me, and the result is something that’s very close to my original vision for the story yet also fits their demographic and production specifications.
It’ll be fun to see where the project goes from here. No attachments or production schedule yet … those things can take a long time. But the good folks at eKidsFilms are committed to the project, and I expect we’ll have some next steps to announce sooner rather than later.
eKidsFilms is an independent movie production company dedicated to producing family entertainment with positive themes. They’ve carved out a niche in family film, and have had success bringing their projects through production and into distribution with Amazon, Red Box, and others.
Harley’s Hill, the story of a 10 year old girl on a cattle ranch who rescues what she thinks is a wild horse. This movie was produced in conjunction with Engine 15 Media Group LLC and was released internationally in 2011 and is currently available in RedBox outlets all thru the United States.
Seeker and Fetch, the wonderful adventure of how a goggle wearing pig and his best friend, a very proud Border Collie, adopt a lonely retired school teacher to help them find the owners for all the lost pets in the city. This movie was produced in conjunction with Engine 15 Media Group LLC and is currently available in RedBox outlets.
The Stray is slated for release later in 2012.
The company also has several other projects in production or development.