Meet Kate DiCamillo

I'm coaching a Chinese lady going to school in Germany and traveling throughout Asia for her job with the UN working on a human trafficking task force. She wants to be a writer, and has the talent for it. She told me about this speech by Kate DiCamillo (the children's book writer). Her speech begins at the 20 minute mark, after the 20 minutes of introductions. (Whew!) It's a short speech, about her Moment of Grace as a writer. She wrote "Because of Winn-Dixie" that was made into a movie. I think it was her first book, written two pages at a time, early mornings, before going to work in a cold book warehouse.

On her author's website is this very short essay about writing too, that is wonderfully inspiriting. Read it: https://www.katedicamillo.com/onwrit.html

Enjoy.  

TRAILER: A GOOD MAN IN HARD TO FIND

A producer called me a few years ago to ask for script consulting help on a series of films based on Flannery O'Connor's stories. He claimed to be part of an organization that had the rights to all her work and they were gearing up for production. I do not recall much of the conversation, but there was a certain naivete involved and nothing ever came of the effort..,.at least with me.

In the meantime I've been told that Benedict Fitzgerald (who did the screenplay for Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST) has a family baby-sitting connection with Flannery, and it is Fitzgerald that has long held the rights...never to let them go.  And for "A GOOD MAN..." he's constructed a full length screenplay...not just the short story Flannery wrote. Fitzgerald is also the credited writer on Fannery's WISE BLOOD (1979) which John ("Jhon") Huston directed.

The movie production rights for O'Connor's stories had moved around a bit...if memory serves. I got the sense that no one knew how to make the movies and sell them. To call her stories Southern Gothic Horror is perhaps a bit simplistic.

According to the usually late and incorrect IMDB, Michael Rooker is somewhere in production on this story. (Perhaps someone out there that actually knows can update us.)

In the meantime, a filmmaker friend of mine, Jon Springer, (cricketfilms.com) who produced LIVING DEAD GIRL (www.moralpremise.com/LDG) which I discussed in The Moral Premise, has had a long time obsession with visualizing the characters in A GOOD MAN...  So, last fall Jon made a trailer for A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND. He does not have the rights. He just wanted to be the first to visualize the characters. I think he did an excellent job. I wrote Michael Rooker's agent, hoping to get Rooker to look at what's below. Are you a Flannery fan? What do you think of Jon's trailer.

A Good Man is Hard to Find - Movie Trailer from Cricket Films on Vimeo.