Had a wonderful adventure
Sunday. The man who would be the
producer of the movie version of my novel Knight Fall (Murder at the War in
hardcover) drove down with Ellen and me to scout a site for it to be filmed. It’s a Boy Scout Camp called Gamehaven and
it’s near Rochester, Minnesota, and a really big piece of rolling
land (over 100 acres). It’s got a
variety of woods (pine, mixed deciduous, oak), meadows, marsh, a little river
and a beautiful lake. The Society for
Creative Anachronism, about which the movie is to be made, has used the site
for events for several years, so Boy Scouts of America know what they’re like. What’s more, the management of Gamehaven is
excited at the prospect of a group of film-makers - even just a small company of locals - coming to make a movie.
The weather was perfect, warm
and sunny with low humidity and not many bugs.
They drove us all over the place, pointing out small and large
campsites, a couple of steep dropoffs (maybe one is suitable for the scene where five men on top hold
off several dozen trying to pry them loose), and angles from which nothing of
the twenty-first century can be seen. It
was interesting to see with new eyes, to realize that this place
would make a good place for King William to give his pre-battle speech, that
over there we might hang tapestries and turn a pavilion into the place where
the kings could hold court, that this little clearing would perhaps be the spot
the little group from Appleby could set up camp. One almost wanted to do that thing of holding
up one’s hands palms forward and thumbs touching to frame a scene. So it seems we have a good site. We already have a good script, an excellent
director (well, almost; he’s interested but hasn't committed), the nucleus of a crew, and a
producer. We’re thinking of actors to
invite to audition. All we’re really
lacking is the money, which is, of course, a very serious problem. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket?
If any of you reading this
are interested in the plot, see if you can find a copy of the book, which was
published under the name Mary Monica Pulver.
Meanwhile, I am doing the
second signing for Knit Your Own Murder at one pm, Saturday, August 13, at
Excelsior Bay Books on Water
Street in Excelsior.
On Saturday the 20th
I’ll be at The Mystery Bookstore in Omaha,
Nebraska, at 3 pm.
Drop by!
1 comment:
How fun that you're going to have a book filmed! And enjoy your signings.
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