THE LAST GREEN DARKNESS POST

Due to circumstances beyond our control and with the deepest regret, we are letting the dream of seeing GREEN DARKNESS made into a movie go.

It was our intent to stay with it for the long haul, but that has become impossible.

To all the fans, we say adieu and thanks for hanging in with us. 

We fear the project may never come to pass.

Farewell  to all~~

Angela and Marla

Reincarnation Is for the Dogs?

At the heart of GREEN DARKNESS are several controversial topics -- reincarnation being one in the mix.
   
Angela and I would like to share some thoughts with you.

Marla’s Musings: Like the Buddhists, I believe reincarnation happens. Maybe my beliefs are not so deep as those of the monks, however I can't help but think, nay believe, that our spirits are on a learning journey that continues from lifetime to lifetime. That we have to learn from our mistakes, whether in this life or in the next... but that's getting into the realm of karma. I also believe that at some point on this learning curve, your spirit, or soul if you prefer, will have learned all it needs to learn and is granted everlasting bliss in heaven.
   
My father, who was born and raised as a staunch Catholic, was a man with a mind open to many possibilities. He used to joke that he was "coming back as Marla's next dog" because of the love and care I lavished on my pets. Is it wrong of me to feel a twinge of guilt that life's circumstances have prevented me from having another dog since Dad's death? Scholars could debate that for eons; Freud would be able to analyze that until he blew his own mind.

Angela’s Meditations: From the time I started to wonder why we were here, I felt a deep connection to the past. Why did specific historical periods resonate so strongly with me? Why certain authors? Did I do something in a past life/lives that caused the circumstances I find myself in today? Reincarnation was a natural explanation for me. The laws of physics say that energy can neither be created or destroyed. If that’s true then where does the energy of our “spirit” go? If everything is recycled, why not our energy or spirit? It makes sense to me and it’s the belief of the majority of humans.

My mother was the one I shared these beliefs with. We both found meaning and purpose in the idea of making as much of each lifetime as possible. It's comforting to think that all our trials and tribulations earn points for the next time around. All our talents pass along with us and ...go easy on the karma for our sins please! LOL
   
Angela and Marla: Perhaps this is why we both love the story of GREEN DARKNESS. For us, finding reincarnation in GREEN DARKNESS and wanting to bring it to the big screen wasn't much of a stretch of the imagination.

The love of Richard/Stephen for Celia present/past would not, could not, simply vanish. It demanded justice. It yearned to be given the chance of redemption.
   
Please share your beliefs on this issue with us. We look forward to reading your comments.

Until next time~~
Marla & Angela

A Journey Back In Time

As our adventure continues, we are constantly reminded of its beginnings.  Just as GREEN DARKNESS searches for answers to present questions in the past, I am also looking into my own past to discover how I got here.

Did it start when I first read the book, or when I wanted to find out whether it had been made into a movie? I'm not sure.


I still remember the moment I googled GREEN DARKNESS MOVIE and found "Following the Trail of Anya Seton's Green Darkness" blog by Tamara Mazzei. http://www.triviumpublishing.com/articles/greendarkness.html

That excitement propelled us on this journey. Then it was learning that the rights to the book were available.

But for me, perhaps it started long before I even read the book. It may have started with my Dad and his love and belief in me. Since it's Father's Day, I'd like to send a whopping big THANK YOU, DAD heavenward. I miss you and hope you're still as proud of your little girl!

We all need someone to believe in us to give us the push forward. Personally, I'm a pushover for any story that involves a parent-child relationship.

I think that's partly why GREEN DARKNESS, the novel, is so powerful. The main character in the past, Celia, is looking for a family. She finds "belonging" in a seemingly unsuitable person--Stephen, a priest, but also the father figure she never had.  And he also eventually acknowledges that he has found the same in her.

Is that the answer? Are we all just constantly looking for belonging?

Happy Father's Day to all~~
Angela

FOR THE LOVE OF GREEN DARKNESS

"Is Green Darkness a film?"

"Is there a Green Darkness movie?"

“Was Green Darkness ever made into a movie?”

Those kinds of questions have been repeatedly googled, weekly actually, ever since our blog started -- and probably long before that!

Our reaction is, well, frankly, mixed... we're thrilled that there is obviously interest in seeing the novel brought to the big screen... we're pleased that the novel is still held dear in the hearts of its vast number of readers... we're satisfied that our adaptation project and blog are still being talked about in book and movie circles around the world (we’ve had 1963 hits of our blog and many others on the FB page)... and we're encouraged to keep slogging along the road to bringing our screenplay to producers' attention…. 

Getting a producer to appreciate the hunger of the novel’s fans is the key!

As to what we've been doing to achieve that goal since our last posting -- we continue to work with screenwriting mentor, Bill Boyle.

“Angela and Marla are an exceptional screenwriting partnership that has an truly organic understanding of the screenwriting craft. They exhibit as a team a very shrewd and entertaining approach to their screenplays as expressed in ‘[Green Darkness]’ which is a complicated piece of work that flows from scene to scene skillfully and seductively.“  Bill Boyle

Thank you, Bill for those kind words! It's been a creatively exciting process-- gradually revealing our baby to a working pro who has never read the book and who sees our script as something that must stand on its own merit.

HOORAY: We pat ourselves on the back for finding a way to justify changing the title of our script back to GREEN DARKNESS from our working title PREORDAINED.

It wasn’t easy! 

Anya Seton quoted a poem in the foreword that contained the words, but that wasn’t good enough for us. 

Does anyone remember the controversy over VANILLA SKY?? We didn’t want to go that route. 

But we’re happy to say we’ve solved the problem –at least for ourselves. You’ll have to be the judge when you see the movie. And we’ll be awaiting those comments!

Let the tweaking continue as do the improvements –

If It Doesn’t Purr, Try Another Stroke!

It’s been a long month, or is it now two since our last update? One loses track of time.  Summer has nearly gone and folks in the biz are back at their desks. We’re still following up at intervals and so far have received a couple of “sorry haven’t gotten to it yet” replies. Meanwhile, we must all be patient. Gaaak!

We have a request: If you’re a screenwriter who is submitting to producers, would you please STOP THAT and give them a chance to catch up and read ours? Just kidding!!  It would be nice if people had enough time to read every script though, wouldn’t it? Maybe in a perfect world…

Is ANYTHING ever perfect? Is any SCRIPT ever perfect? For that matter, is any MOVIE? Is our script a diamond, so highly polished it blinds you? We’d like to think so. We’ve adhered to the original material enough to please the devoted fans. We’ve woven the story into a tight narrative with subtext, mythology and symbolism. We’ve stroked our theme until it… Can you hear it purring where you are? Well, then maybe we’re not stroking the right way yet.

So, Marla and I are going to plunge into another rewrite. Not because we’re convinced that our script is imperfect, but rather we feel it might still be enhanced, purr-wise. We felt it was time to get some further consulting and a coach.

We’ll probably improve many aspects as we go through the process again.

In the end, it may not be the quality of our writing that stands in the way of a sale. Just between us, my friend, I can admit we’ve got a lot of experience behind us.  The stumbling block may be the premise, the root of the story—the novel. The way the movie business works, we have to find a chain of champions who each individually believe in reincarnation and will promote a story based on that belief. The majority of people on our planet do. So you’d think our chances should be good. Fingers crossed? What, are you superstitious? You betcha!

Battling the current—till next time~~

Speeding Right Along -- No Cruise Control Yet!

We thought we would share with our readers some of the comments our adaptation script of GREEN DARKNESS has gathered along the road to being optioned. We're still driving in the fast lane of that highway of dreams -- 12 producers are reading the screenplay --             
hopefully at this very moment --



PRODUCERS:

“Given the red-hot status of the book, I’m sure you will find a great home for this project.”

“well-written; liked premise”

“script well-crafted & strongly written”


FANS:

C.B. Green Darkness is an eternal novel, repeatedly a Best Seller, your wonderful script is destined to become a Wonderful and Successful Movie, mmm, Poducers should be bright ... & fast enough to seize this golden opportunity!

D.E. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see this wonderful work of fiction brought a bit closer to the big screen. I've read the book at least 40 times in the past 39 years since it was first published.  I am so psyched for this movie to be made!

C.B. I cannot express with words how exciting it's following your work

D.J. I've read the book twice over this holiday break, loved the story and can't wait to see it on the big screen!

K.S. Just found your blog and I’m so excited you’ve taken on this adaptation!

C.S. I am so excited that you are going to bring my all-time favorite book to the big screen! …I think as long as you make sure people know that it was originally Green Darkness, you’ll fill those theaters!

PRESS RELEASE

The novel GREEN DARKNESS by Anya Seton is a #2 Bestseller on Amazon.com!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D23&field-keywords=reincarnation&x=14&y=17#/ref=sr_st?keywords=reincarnation&qid=1306777436&rh=n%3A283155%2Cn%3A!1000%2Cn%3A23%2Ck%3Areincarnation&sort=salesrank 

This is great news for the screenwriters  (A Falkowska and MJ Hayes) who have optioned the book and written an adaptation, PREORDAINED, that is now being read by producers and managers!

The Brass Ring's Romantic Workout

When we set sail on this journey to get our adaptation written and  produced, we knew full well that it was going to take time. Are we not dealing with swamped professionals who get tens of thousands of queries every year? I know I wouldn’t want to be in their boat. But our dinghy is pitching as well (pardon the pun).

The creative urge doesn’t stop when you’re in 'waiting-mode', it just sloshes around in your brain every waking hour and makes you irritable and not fun to be around. It’s not as if anything else even comes close in interest, except family, maybe. And it’s enough to make you give you a migraine from the keel up!

I can now fully understand why our mentor, Hal Croasmun, always said, “Forget the small talk. There’s nothing more interesting than the biz.” On the other hand, he also said we should try to find some shared interest with people in the biz. Sigh. Another conundrum to contemplate as I’m swatting the sheep popping over the fence—aka falling asleep.

What we realized, but chose not to think so much about, was how much luck would have to do with it. If we had, we’d never have begun and would not then be more than halfway to our goal! One of our query letters was refused because the manager had another client with a very similar project and he felt taking ours on would create a conflict of interest. Now that’s hopeful. The idea of past lives is certainly out there in the mainstream by now, and someone is capitalizing on it. Bravo!

Our goal is to find a producer (at least one) who likes our query enough to request the script and then has a reader with the same sensibilities (one would hope that’s the case anyhow) who loves our script enough to champion it. And that this producer will also then read and love our script and champion it to his bosses and financiers, who will in turn also adore the concept enough to invest their money. A lot of things have to fall in place just to make the deal.

Fingers crossed for the next wave, we sail onward toward the brass ring!! Even if, at times, we have to blow in our own sails to move an inch!

And so it goes~~

Til next time
Angela

Going For The Passion!

It’s been a long week of waiting and moving on. Our GREEN DARKNESS adaptation is in the hands of many producers at this point. Help us visualize multiple positive responses.

We've had one response so far, a positive-negative, from a producer who said, "All in all, this was a well crafted and strongly written project." He just didn’t feel “passionate” enough about the material.

We’re not disheartened. After all, not everyone liked GREEN DARKNESS the novel—only those who read and re-read it! It’s all a matter of taste…and we need someone who feels the same way as we do about this story.

Meanwhile, we’re both looking for a new project that we can be just as passionate about!

Life is all about the passion. You get out of it what you put into it, she typed passionately.

Feel it, live it! Til next time~~

Angela