In the aftermath of meeting our deadlines and submitting our project, we know this much:
1. Our pitch to Telefilm will happen in early May.
2. For that pitch, we need to bring something more to the table, something real.
3. The one real thing we're still missing is: humans.
That's right - we need flesh and blood mortals who will give our characters life. And, who will give our financiers a reason to come on board. As I'm sure I've mentioned in previous installments - putting together the perfect cast for any film is a process quite comparable to alchemy. Even if you come at it with years of experience and you're working under optimal conditions with easy access to every element under the sun - you can still end up with lead.
The conditions surrounding the casting of our kind of film (i.e. a director's first feature with a period film budget, in English, produced in Quebec) impose quite limited access to the elements believed to be essential in the creation of gold - box office gold, that is.
I am of course speaking about STARS.
As any "alchemist" knows, capturing and harnessing even one of those heavenly bodies is almost impossible without the bait of full financing, foreign distribution and all-important "connections". From our foreseeable position, only the financing aspect is reasonably attainable. But then again, financing can often be heavily dependent on casting.
Around and round we go...
But still, I believe that anything is possible. Especially in movies. And especially now, after I've managed to track down - and capture - the blazing star of Ms. Dolly Parton and firmly attach it to this project. Granted, she was a fairly obvious casting choice for this film, but everything that worked in that first experiment will be applied to the process of casting the remaining key roles - Elizabeth, Marion and Phil. Below, for the first time in print, is an exclusive look at the formula we'll be following:
INSTINCT + CREATIVITY + FAITH + PERSISTENCE + TIME + KEVIN BACON =
CASTING GOLD (respecting all the Can-con and Quebec residency quotas, of course).
Kids, go ahead and try this at home!
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