A Holiday Cookie - Myst - The Motion Picture

Dec
25

There have been a lot of comments as of late. I suppose the security passes for Warner Brothers and Universal Studios have a little bit to do with that… Lots of speculation as the the status of things. We’ve been pretty cryptic (read: evil). I have no intention of being any more forthcoming in this post. If you’re reading this hoping to get full-disclosure, stop now. On the other hand, if you’re looking for more vague information to tease your palate, this is the post for you. I promise it will give you a better picture of what’s going on, it just won’t give up the super-secret info you’re hoping for.

No, we have not joined forces with a studio. Our trip to LA was to meet with potential producing partners. What this means is that we were looking for producers to join forces with to further develop the script and project in preparation for pitching to the studios. Gaining partners like these gives us access to the experience and relationships in the industry these partners have. Just what we need to grease the wheels and get things moving a bit faster.

Yes, we have entered into partnerships. We have joined forces with two production companies. Announcement of those names will come at a later date after some business elements have been taken care of. For now I will tell you this:One of our partners has a first-look deal at Warner Brothers. What this means is that any projects they develop must be taken to Warner Brothers before they are taken anywhere else. Warner has the option to greenlight or pass on the project. If they pass, we are free to pitch to every other studio in town. So, for now, we’re aiming on getting BoT set-up at Warner Brothers. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT IS WHERE THE FILM WILL EVENTUALLY BE. Don’t assume this is a guarantee of WB being the studio. I will also tell you that the other producer we partnered with is an Oscar winner and has extensive experience with world-creation and bringing epic films like ours to the theaters. We are very excited about our partners and we’re enjoying the collaboration.

Now, as to the timeline of events upcoming…

The process of bringing BoT to the big screen is far from over. In fact, it’s only just started. I think it’s safe to say that it’s still going to be at least two and half or three years before you can sit down in that darkened megaplex and check out this amazing, history-making film. I know, I know, you guys are all thinking “It’s already been five years”, but that’s really nothing in the grand scheme of things. You have to consider where this whole thing began and where we were when we began it. We were two guys sitting in a basement in Granger, Indiana. We had no real connections to speak of and Cyan hadn’t even heard of us yet. A lot of time has gone into things like pitching the idea to Cyan, writing the script, building this website, contacting producers, etc. It is a time-consuming process, and one that is made all that much more difficult by the fact that we’ve been forced to do it on a part time basis from the start. Day jobs and our need for food, clothing and shelter have lengthened our development time quite a bit.

Think of it this way, if we hadn’t launched this site, the first time you’d be hearing of a Myst movie would be once we’ve gotten a go-ahead from the studio to enter official development. By that point it wouldn’t seem like an unreasonable amount of time to wait until the film hit theaters. You guys have just been in the know for an unusually long time.

So why is it going to take so long? Well, here’s the process from now on in. Now that we’ve partnered, we’ve begun developing the script with the input of our partners. They are sharing their thoughts and desires for the film with us and we with them. They are letting us know what a studio is going to look favorably upon and what they are going to run from without delay. This is what’s called deep development. We anticipate this process taking somewhere between three and six months.

Once we have a script we feel is solid and ready for presentation to the studios, we’ll assemble our pitch materials and set up meetings. Hopefully, we’ll have simultaneously begun to attach “elements” to the project. Elements are things like a director and actors.

Provided we get a bite from a studio during this pitch tour (which may start and stop with Warner Bros.), we’ll then find ourselves in further development. Yep, more development. The studio is going to have their own thoughts and their own desires for the film. We’ll have to work with them and attempt to incorporate their ideas in or fight to leave them out, depending. We’ll also have a director that will want to make changes. All directors want changes. This is understandable. I’d want to have input on the content of a film I was directing, so… This studio development will be another six months or so.

At the end of this phase we’ll have a finalized, locked script (hopefully). A date for production will be set and then we’ll be in pre-production. The crew will be assembled. Concept art will be rendered, locations will be scouted and sets will be constructed. Casting will be completed. All of the plans will be laid and at the end of this six to nine month period, we’ll be in production.

Production will take somewhere between three and nine months, depending. That’s where the fun stuff happens and everything comes to life on set. It’s where the cavern becomes a tangible thing we can walk through and explore. It’s where our stars have meltdowns. It’s where last minute dialogue changes keep us up until an hour before shooting. That’s the stuff we live for.

After production, we have the post-production process. This is where editing the film happens. It’s where the visual effects are completed and placed into the film and the musical score is added. How long this will take is anyone’s guess. It all depends on a few factors. The first is when we’re slated for release and how far away we are from that date. Next, it depends on the schedules and workloads of our visual effects houses, sound designers, color graders, etc.

After that’s all done….Well, that’s when you get to cry at the amazing beauty that is Myst: The Book of Ti’ana as its imagery overwhelms you.

So, to tide you over as you wait for this, here’s a little holiday treat for those of you who took the time to read this far: