12 Films. 12 Weeks. There are worse ways to spend a summer.

An Embarrassment of Riches

An interesting milestone has been reached for 12in12, and we were all too busy to notice it.

In the weeks leading up to this project, we were scrambling to come up with as many scripts as possible.  I had Mike put me on a deadline (it’s the only way I work), Mike dug through his treasure trove of old material in search of re-workable stuff, and we eagerly accepted submissions from any friend or acquaintance with word-processing software and a story to tell.  We were desperate for scripts – not because we were afraid we wouldn’t have enough, but because we didn’t want to be in the position of greenlighting something mediocre out of the sheer need to fill a slot.  Our early production meetings were less about “What scripts do we love?” than they were about “What scripts are ready?”  Pragmatic considerations (“Can we do this in a week?”) and concern about variety (“Is it too much like X?”) had their place as well.

Now, as we near the end of Week Four and start looking ahead to Semester Two, it’s a very different dilemma we confront.  Suddenly, we’re faced with a glut of promising projects at various stages of development – as well as a glut of exciting collaborators we’d like to have a chance to work with.  Simply put, we’re not going to be able to do it all.  There are going to be scripts and script concepts that we like a great deal but end up having no time for.  There are going to be some tough decisions, maybe some heated discussions, and even a certain degree of heartbreak.

And that’s sort of wonderful.

Riches. (I tried to find a complementary picture of Mike looking embarrassed, but there isn't one.)

Here’s a brief (and incomplete) rundown of what’s on the radar for weeks 7 through 12.  Please note: this is not a list of the best scripts we have.  These are the ones we like that we think we can actually do.

• “The Proposal” – A Mike Lavoie script (with a sprawling cast) about love, art, and disappointment.  In need of a new title since Sandra Bullock stole our thunder.
• “Spirits” — A dialogue-free story about unlikely connections in the course of a New York night, written by Keith Boynton (me).
• “Whiteboard” — Another Lavoie offering, bumped from Semester One but still very much on the radar.  A boy/girl story with a distinctly surreal flavor.
• “La Pilule” (“The Pill”) — Sweet, sexy, bilingual love story by Zach Rudes.
• “The Try-Out” – Written by me as a vehicle for Lavoie, this film consists of a very unorthodox dinner date.
• “Untitled Caitlin McEwan Project” — Written by Caitlin McEwan.  Whimsical parable with a “meta” twist.

And then there’s the potential collaboration with animator Helene Park, and the script I want to write set in that cool bar we might be able to use, and Mike’s “Old Love” sequel (“New Love,” natch), and the one-take movie no one’s managed to write yet, and any other script that might be submitted between now and our big July 6th production meeting.

And make no mistake: WE WANT MORE SCRIPTS.  Nothing I’ve said above should dissuade you from writing something, or sending on something you’ve already written.  We cannot possibly have too much good material.  If we love your script, we will produce it — if not this summer, then after we’ve recovered from this summer.

(That is, around December 2010.)

Posted by Keith