One for Them, One For Me
When I first met writer/director Adam Mervis in the summer of 2019, over lunch at the sadly now defunct 101 Coffee Shop, we talked a lot about his big studio film that was coming out in a few months, 21 Bridges, starring Chadwick Boseman and produced by the Russo Brothers (directors of Avengers: Endgame). He came up with the story for the film and wrote the screenplay, and it was the big break he'd been waiting for for years, and yet, he was frustrated. That frustration was why we were meeting--he wanted me to help produce his micro-budget feature directorial debut, The Last Days of Capitalism. The story of the making of 21 Bridges was fascinating to me, an inside look at how the sausage gets made on a big Hollywood film. Famously, screenwriters aren't treated all that well in the sausage factory.
Fast forward to today, and Adam is anticipating the release of a new studio picture that he wrote for Thunder Road (the producers of the John Wick franchise), National Champions, which is opening December 10th, and is currently writing a new screenplay for Thunder Road and Sylvester Stallone's company. That, and our feature opens today on Video on Demand.
It was a long road getting here for Adam, with many valuable lessons along the way, and that's part of what we'll cover in this No Budget Film Club discussion. Adam will give a candid overview of his career--how it started and how he has managed it since--and will demystify the Hollywood screenwriting process along the way.
And, of course, we'll pull back the curtain on how we made our award-winning $40k feature. Last Days was completed in March 2020 and premiered at Cinequest, literally the day before the world shut down for COVID. We spent 2020 playing several virtual festivals--winning 4 awards in the process--but there's no doubt COVID stunted our festival run. We're excited to be opening the film today (it's now playing on Amazon), and I can't wait to tell you how we did it. It involves a borrowed Suburban, a luxury penthouse in Las Vegas, a tiny crew and 10 days of shooting. Begging, borrowing and stealing and a lot of luck.
In our discussion we'll reveal how much was spent on what, how we found our amazing actors, how we pulled off post production on dimes, and how we decided to go with Indie Rights as our distributor. We'll show behind-the-scenes stills, answer all your questions, give you a chance to win exciting prizes in our fantabulous Trivia Contest, and network after the event. |
