08/04/2005

The director of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later has teamed up with the UK Film Council’s Development Fund to get European writers to develop a new script for him.
Following the success of the UK FC’s “25 words on less” initiative, the new “25 Words or Less: Director’s Cut” will offer writers residents of the UK or another EU member state, a chance to write a script for established directors with financiers already involved from the beginning of the script development process. Danny Boyle, but also the director of Intermission John Crowley are attached to the UK FC’s project as well as Pathé UK and the production and financial company Intermedia. Both directors have set out a brief indicating what kind of stories they are looking for, and based on those briefs, the writers –with agency representation-will have to submit a short pitch through the UK FC’s Development Fund. The Fund with the directors and the financiers will then select two writers who will receive £10,000 each in development funding to cover the first draft original screenplay. One of the writers will work with Danny Boyle and Pathé UK, and the other with John Crowley and Intermedia.

Danny Boyle’s brief is inspired by L’esprit d’escalier, the notion of people missing chances in life, something often at odds to what happens in movies. “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 seems like it will follow us to the grave. Or is there occasionally a chance to change that…”
Crowley who is drawn to stories about sadness, coldness or loneliness that can be passed on through generations, would like writers to think of the idea of ‘rebirth’, or a transformation story about a man or a woman who begins as someone that spreads coldness wherever he or she goes.
The deadline for applying to the UK FC’s “25 Words or less Director’s Cut” project is 11 July 2005.