I
remember the first day I was here, I asked “what’s
your process for keeping track of all the scripts you receive?”
and they handed me a box of scripts, and then I looked behind
the couch, and there were more there. It was just a few people
doing all of it themselves.
AE:
What are you looking for?
MK: In the acquisitions, we’re obviously
looking for great films, which can come in all shapes and sizes.
In development, we’re looking to fill in gaps: we have
a lot of films about the coming-out process, and we’re
trying to add to that and explore different territory.
Initially
we were looking for scripts that could be shot sooner than later,
that didn’t need a lot of development. But that’s
shifting a little, now that we have a lot of content we can
use now. Now we’re willing to be a little more patient
with projects that contain good ideas, but maybe need a little
more work.
AE:
What kinds of scripts are you getting?
MK:
We’re getting a lot of scripts from established screenwriters
who have that one gay script sitting on their shelf that they
sent around town even a few years ago and got the response “We
love it, brilliantly written, we’ll never make it.”
Now those things are being dusted off and sent to us, which
I love.
It’s
interesting to be serving an audience that’s constantly
in a state of flux. I remember the days when people used to
line up around the block to see Jeffrey, but it’s
really hard to get people out to see those films now because
there are so many more images of gays on TV, like Queer
as Folk and Will and Grace.
AE:
What kinds of lesbian projects are you seeing?
MK: I’m having a harder time finding
the kind of lesbian material we’re looking for. I’m
not sure why that is, but my counterparts at other companies
who are looking for gay material say they have the exact same
experience.
There
are many scripts I have on my shelves that were pitched to me
as lesbian romantic comedies, and they’re really talky.
A lot of lesbians have told me they’re really over that.
Finding something different is really difficult. If I had something
like Bound, it
would have been made already—it’s such a great script,
and although it’s low-budget, it's so well done you can’t
tell. Something like that would be great.
A
lot of the projects we’re looking at have that sort of
noir, thriller feeling, where you have a lesbian or gay detective
or cop, dealing with a crime to solve or insurmountable obstacles.
I have found a few things like this, but there aren’t
very many that truly feel different.
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