For those who don't know the scoop, I optioned Heartsgaard to actor and producer Gerard Marzilli two weeks ago.  Last week, he brought me onto the project as a director.  From this point on, both Heartsgaard and Sam Bailey will be on track to shoot by year's end.

Having just finished the new Sam Bailey draft, I'll be rolling right into a Heartsgaard revision geared towards economizing and punching the comedy - in short, tightening the film.  From the beginning, Heartsgaard has always been a simpler story than Sam Bailey.  At the same time, they both share a strength in character.  Both films have a quirky sense of comedy, borne of real people in some pretty unreal circumstances.

As a producer and a performer, Gerard is the ideal choice for this material.  On the one hand, he has a passion for fantasy.  Without question, he wants to see magic and wonder in the world.  Conrad Elisson, our main character, is a man who struggles with that same passion until bringing magic into his life becomes more important than actually living it.  Conrad learns the hard way that one can't add to life.  One can only learn to live it better.  As a producer and a performer, Gerard gets that message in his bones.  Nobody is more passionate and driven to see this film realized on the screen.

Yes, I know I wrote it.  Yes, Heartsgaard is a very personal story for me.  Believe me when I say that when Gerard Marzilli tells me I'm the man to direct this film, it is a profound compliment.

At the same time, Gerard is a scrapper who goes the distance.  Anyone familiar with Dead in Love knows what Gerard can do with very limited resources - and indeed, there are those who have seen his past successes and have waited on the sidelines for him to connect with the right material.  Gerard feels this is it.  I couldn't agree more.

One thing this means is that Heartsgaard, like Sam Bailey, will be a film produced and nurtured by our own creative community.  While Gerard is producing, it's going to take all of us to see it come to light.  Because both films are set in Boston, and because so many of the same people are involved, we're talking very seriously about bridging the production of Sam Bailey and Heartsgaard.  We may finance them together.  We may shoot them with only a three or four day gap inbetween, with a producer on hand to handle the management of the shoot as one event - dividing the pre-production labor between the two production teams.  Certainly, we're open to suggestions.  If you have ideas, write us!

Gerard's blog will be the go-to spot for all the Heartsgaard news that's fit to print!  He's published some very flattering observations about yours truly, and the first commentary on Heartsgaard can be found here:  http://gerardmarzilli.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-year-new-projects.html

These films are not Good Will Hunting.  These films are not Mystic River, Gone Baby, Gone or The Departed.  There's a new voice in film coming from Boston.  Our stories reach through blue-collar wisdom and blue-blood tradition to touch on the mythic.

Stories about the trials of daily achievement aren't enough anymore.  We're here to peel back that layer and see what's behind it.