We have to make this movie NOW!

One minute I'm meeting with producers Dave Cluck and Will Tiao about coming on-board to Direct FORMOSA BETRAYED. The next thing I knew, we were in the Formosa Films office writing out a new outline for the movie!

They had several different writers work on the project previously, and I knew I would need a politically savvy writer to frame the historical context so that we gave enough information but weren't preaching nor giving a civics lesson. I called my friend Nate Goodman who had been my Camera Operator when I was a Cinematographer. Of the many talents Nate possesses (he's also a very talented Director) I felt writing was his most unacknowledged skill. A graduate from Brown University and the graduate film program at UCLA, Nate had been a Camera Assistant and then Camera Operator in the motion picture business for many years before becoming a Cinematographer on "HEROES". I had read more than a few of Nate's screenplays over the years and was impressed -- he had been one of the best undiscovered writers in the business...until now.

Nate would be coming in and teaming with fellow writer Brian Askew, who had been working on the project for several months, to work out the new direction for the script and add the new character of 'Ming'. I had pitched Will the idea for Ming in our first meeting and he had liked the idea -- I felt that we needed to get to know someone from Taiwan more intimately in order for the audience to identify with the country's conflict.

Brian was to write the first pass, incorporating some of the work that had been done in the 3 previous working drafts. Then Nate would take it over, doing another pass that was originally designed to sharpen the political and historical aspects of the movie. After 4-5 days of Brian, Nate, and myself worked out a new outline for the script that we all liked. We presented it to Dave and Will -- they liked it, and only had a few things they wanted to adjust, clarify, or change. Two days later we all agreed. Brian was to start writing immediately; Nate would take over writing approximately 3-4 weeks later and do another pass on the script. Dave and I began discussing schedule -- at this point it was already the end of the first week in February, and the Writer's Strike was still going on (by the way: none of our writers were members of the Writers Guild of America so they were not in violation of any wrongdoing by working on our project. They were considered to be 'non-union'). There were rumblings from another union, this time the Screen Actor's Guild, that they might go on strike themselves on June 30th. This WOULD affect us, as we wanted to use SAG actors in our movie.

I told Dave, "We know the scenes (even though we don't have a completed script), so we know what the locations need to be -- we need to go scout, NOW!". We wanted to fit the shoot in before the potential SAG strike at the end of June and take advantage of the fact that there were actors not working who might want to do a smart independent political thriller. Dave agreed; it was Will who was hesitant. Rightfully so -- he had raised over $5 million dollars to make this movie and he didn't want to spend money unwisely. Once we talked it over Will understood both the opportunity and predicament we were in; lots of great talent available who were not working, and another possible strike looming in the very near future that could make it impossible for us to start shooting if we waited much longer.

Will agreed. So we next did something that goes against the basic rules of the independent filmmaking business -- we started to spend money without a finished script nor any cast in place. We boarded a plane for Asia and started a 2 week scout to both Taiwan and Thailand.

Pre-production had begun!

Stay tuned...
Adam