The Urn

Thrilled and excited because this intriguing short film,  which I wrote for Celtino Entertainment and Secret Candy Films, is going to be shot in London in February!

It features the talents of British actress FRANCESCA DE LUCA,  American actor JOE  CAMARENO and LA based Director AJ RICKERT EPSTEIN.

3 HOURS

 

Heading to Cinequest FilmFestival, San Jose in March where 3 HOURS is an official selection.

A THOUSAND MILE PATH

ANDREE DE JONGH

Working with Producer Carol Iovanna at Illumination Productions inc in New York to bring  Dedee’s extraordinary story to the big screen.

 

Imagine….

You’re a 24 year old Belgian wisp of a girl with a glittering design future ahead of you. 

Suddenly your whole world is turned upside down… literally.  The country you love is steamrollered into oblivion by the most powerful military force the world has ever known.

 What do you do?

Do you hide?  Do you keep quiet and wait till they go away?  Do you collaborate? Or do you take on the whole might of the Nazi system and outsmart them?

If you are Dedee De Jongh , in 1940,  that’s exactly what you do.

You enlist your family. Your friends. Find patriots. You plan routes. Swim across raging rivers. Climb towering mountains. Dodge bullets. Risk every sinew of your body, heart and soul. You ignore pain. Scorn illness. You deny yourself the chance of a relationship with the one man you will ever love.  

All this to create and sustain an escape route for downed airmen which runs a thousand miles from your home in Brussels, through occupied France and over the awesome Pyrenees to the sanctuary of Spain.

Your Comet Line repatriates over 800 airmen in the course of the war. But over a hundred of your comrades die. You are captured and tortured by the Gestapo.  The two men you care about most in the world are killed.  

Despite everything, you survive. And you wonder whether the price was worth paying . But you know deep down you had to do it. It was your destiny.  You were put on Earth to fight for freedom.  

And you did.

That’s Dédée’s story.

This is her film.

3 HOURS

3 HOURS wins “Best International Short” at Foyle Film Festival!

   

 

 

 

Well done Regan and the whole team who made it happen!

 

http://www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk/newspage.asp?id=100&storyID=2866

Islanders

Have completed script with Jorg Tittel on the extraordinary Chagos Islanders story.

In the late 1960′s the  Indian Ocean paradise which is the Chagos archipelago was ‘leased’ by the British Government  to the USA so that the US forces could build a convenient military base for re-fuelling on their way to bomb in the Middle East.

The casualties (quite apart from those in the Middle East!) were the indigenous Chagos island population who were lured, bribed and, ultimately,  forced to vacate their homes.   Most of them ended up dumped in Mauritius.

But, despite,  our anger at the islanders treatment,  this is not a campaigning documentary.

This film tells the beautiful and innocent story of two island children as they respond,  in their own very special way,  to having their childhood wrenched from them and being ousted from their homes.

HOKEY POKEY

 

Happy for  Creator/Producer Jeff Hayward (Flying High Productions)  that this New Zealand coming of age story which Jeff wrote with Sam as consultant and later co-writer,  now has Director Gaylene Preston attached and support from the New Zealand Film Commission.

This will be a charming yet provoking feature film.  Exciting.  Good on you Jeff. It’s been a long haul!

3 Hours

Industry screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Premiered at the Apollo Piccadilly.

3 Hours is on the road!

www.3hoursfilm.com

www.facebook.com/pages/3-Hours-Film/347194033949

 

3hours-Post Production

Good to hear from Director, Regan Hall, that all is going well.

Can’t wait to see it!

http://www.3hoursfilm.com/

Dying for Love

Delighted to have optioned my feature script about Dickens and his late love life to  Amuleto Productions.  (www.amuletoproductions.com)

 

Celebrity can give you everything except the one thing you really want….. love.

When the aging Dickens becomes infatuated with a bright young actress and is desperate to hide his infidelity from his trusting, moralistic readers, he sets up a complex web of deceit and, finally, a punishing lecture tour which allows him to play away but eventually kills him.

Charles Dickens was the most famous storyteller since Shakespeare. A celebrity in his own lifetime, his magazine serialised stories were as eagerly awaited by his doting public as the latest Harry Potter book and film is by JK Rowling fans today.

Their reverence for his writing was only matched by their admiration of his clean living, decent reputation as a man of principle and integrity. But Dickens’ real life was edgy, passionate and dangerous. The resourcefulness he deployed to keep his other life secret was as extraordinary as anything he wrote.

DYING FOR LOVE exposes the real Dickens. A tormented man fighting for a love he could never have unless he was prepared to give up his reputation. A man who chose to sacrifice his own life to ‘have it all’ and yet ended up driving himself  to an early grave.

Three Lemons

Sam has been commissioned to work with John Bishop on his comedy: Three Lemons for Stuart Burrage at Airborne.