Irish director John Crowley (Intermission) is joining forces with British director Danny Boyle (Millions, Trainspotting) for the UK Film Council’s new script initiative entitled 25 Words or Less: Directors Cut, which offers writers (with agency representation) a chance to pen a feature film for them to direct.
Backed by film companies Pathé UK and Intermedia, the new “25 Words or Less: Director’s Cut” project gets both directors and financiers involved from the beginning of the script development process.
Each director has set out a brief giving an indication of the kind of stories they are looking for and want to find a writer to work with them, developing this brief into a film. Writers are invited to submit a short pitch based on one of these briefs through the UK Film Council’s Development Fund, who will fund the successful applicants to develop a first draft screenplay.
Boyle took his inspiration from L'Esprit d'Escalier - the notion of people missing chances in life, something which is often at odds to what happens on the screen.
“In the movies, when it matters most, the hero says the perfect line; at the crucial moment they always do the right thing” says Boyle. “But for the rest of us that feeling of having blanked at an important moment, of failing to do the right thing at the right time, seems like it will follow us to the grave. Or is there occasionally a chance to change that?”
For his part, Crowley would like writers to create a contemporary ‘rebirth’ or transformation story about a man or woman who begins as someone that spreads coldness wherever he or she goes.
Crowley, who is drawn to stories which hint at the idea that sadness, coldness or loneliness can be somehow contagious or passed on through generations, says, “It seems to me that the idea of transmitting coldness - whether deliberately or unwittingly - might offer an interesting imaginative starting point for a contemporary story, romantic, comic or tragic in tone.”
- Development funding of £10,000 will be offered to each successful writer to cover a first draft original script and one set of revisions based on the story idea and will be advanced after full execution of a Development Agreement.
- This scheme is open to individuals 18 years and over who are nationals and residents of the UK or another state of the European Union/European Economic Area.
- Applications must be received by 10 am on Monday 11th July 2005.
Visit www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk for further details.
