TAKING A TIME OUT...

- but as Arnie so eloquently put it – “I’ll be back!”

With 9 projects lined up on our development slate – 5 of which could be ready to go before the cameras within a few months – the lack of financing and generally poor economic situation in the film industry means that I will be going on an extended leave from Zeitgeist Film.

Since first joining the company in 2002 as a script reader who hardly knew any Danish, I have read hundreds of scripts, met with a large number of exceptional writers and been involved in active development on more than 30 projects.

Some of them held fast and became a permanent entry on our slate, jostling for position with the others to see which film would be the next to be greenlit.

The problem comes when there are too few resources available and a minor hiccup in one production can cause a chain reaction right the way down the line.

Well, that hiccup (in the form of an investor who backed out of ‘Det grå guld’ (Grey Gold) at the last minute) happened a little over a year ago, and now we have a slate that is full to bursting point.

To take on and begin to develop any more projects would not only be unfair to the writers of those new projects, but also to the very patient and understanding writers and directors we have already attached to the projects on our slate.

Now that post-production on ‘Det grå guld’ is about to finish, Zeitgeist Film can go into production on 2 more films this year and then the momentum we had a few years ago will return.

In the meantime, I am taking an extended leave to go off and do some developing. I have created a website called scriptguyphil.com, which should be live within a couple of weeks. Developing scripts is what I do best and its what I enjoy the most.

Whilst I undertake the challenge of getting scriptguyphil.com up to speed, it will give Zeitgeist Film a chance to make some movies without me adding to the backlog, and then we can finally aim for our goal of making two films a year – every year!

Happy writing (and see you soon!)