by Voyage | Jan 23, 2015 | Book to Film
What do “Hunger Games,” “Harry Potter,” “Jurassic Park,” “The Godfather,” and “Gone with the Wind” all have in common? Obviously, they’re all major big-screen successes, but did you know that every one of these film properties is based on a novel? Would it surprise you to learn that many of the most commercially and critically successful movies of all time started on the pages of a book? Seven of the top ten highest-grossing movies of all time (when adjusting for inflation) are book adaptations, and in 2015 alone, nearly half of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture are book adaptations (including The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game, and American Sniper). So why aren’t you adapting a book for the screen yet? Here are 4 reasons why your next screenplay should be based on a book: 1) “True Stories” are hot right now! Audiences love movies based on real life events, and the pile of autobiographies and provocative life stories just waiting to be adapted is infinite. Just watch the dollar signs appear in the eyes of development executives as you pitch your project – they’ll perk up faster than you can utter the words, “based on a true story.” 2) Adaptations carry more weight than original screenplays in Hollywood A book provides an established concept with solid characters, which saves both time and money. Bottom line: from a buyer’s perspective, an adaptation will be taken much more seriously than an original screenplay. Regardless of how popular the source book actually is, an adaptation implies that an audience already exists for the story and that it is marketable. 3)...
by Voyage | Jan 21, 2015 | Blog post, Uncategorized
It’s been a big year at Voyage and I wanted to take a moment and thank you for being a part of our growing family of creators! Without you, none of what we accomplished would have been possible. We set some big goals in 2014 – we wanted to get some films made and we wanted to expand our ability to make a real difference to creators (and their projects) around the world. Toward that end, one of our successes was officially launching our “Originals” program, specifically designed to partner with select creators to bring their projects to market and arrange for packaging, financing and distribution. We took on 14 new film and television projects in the program this year, all of which are now partially packaged or financed and in various stages of development. A couple standouts include producing and releasing our award-winning and highly profitable film, VALLEY UPRISING, and bringing the scripted TV series, UNBRIDLED to market and securing the participation of 2 well-known and respected showrunners. You can read more about our Success Stories here. We’re also proud of our partnership with Amplify Releasing/GoDigital, which enabled us to guarantee distribution to some of the film projects in our Originals Program as well as for several clients who took advantage of our new distribution business plan / strategy service, “Distribution Deep Dive”. Our Professionals Program is in its 3rd year and took a surprising and unplanned twist. Not only does the program continue to serve as the incubator for projects that enter our Originals Program, but it also now acts as a crucible for nurturing and identifying...
by Voyage | Jan 14, 2015 | Uncategorized
TOM CARTIER ON METHOD WRITING These days treatments and presentations can’t be run of the mill considering what’s at stake. They need ideas that haven’t been seen before. The toolkit used to tell stories is getting refreshed almost daily but it all still starts on a blank piece of paper. It’s going to take bold, imaginative thinking to stand out. What’s more, this creativity has to be applied to the new medium of the Internet where anything goes. Being a writer, faced with these daunting thoughts, I always rely on my creative process, which applies a salad of different philosophies to the challenge of coming up with big, new ideas. One school of thought believes the best, most original thoughts, especially when writing images for the screen, come from the subconscious. James Cameron once said he had a nightmare about an invincible robot hitman sent from the future to kill him. Hence, The Terminator. I too subscribe to this theory and diligently write down any visions I’ve had while sleeping. Although at times it’s difficult to remember what I’ve dreamt, I find it a vital process. As we enter an age where graphic photo-realism can be applied to almost any concept, where there are 10-second horror film banner ads, no avenue to original ideas can be overlooked. But I also like to have a grounding sense of the reality of a concept. I like to dig into the most granular, un-thought-of details about a subject before execution. And I’m a firm believer that reference like clips, films, books and photography is just the start. As much as possible, I’ll...
