Happy to report I'm working on another feature film with Yuta Silverman, who was the inspiration behind ARRANGED. Over the past eight years, due to the continued success of that film, Yuta and I have talked about many possible follow-up projects. Finally, last year, we hit on a world we were both interested in exploring. We began researching the many golem references and mythologies in Jewish lore and holy texts, and started kicking around ideas about how a modern retelling might function. Although some of the underpinnings are the same, the film will be very different than ARRANGED tonally - squarely landing in the "elevated genre" category.
The films we've referenced in development include FILL THE VOID (because of its beautiful handling of the Orthodox faith), EX MACHINA (because of its adept melding of cutting-edge tech and strong charactes), and ROSEMARY'S BABY. The latter for many reasons, but primarily because of the way Polanski uses Mia Farrow's POV to constantly keep the audience guessing and on edge. Is this a woman going insane? Is this just an unhinged pregnant woman? Or are there really Satanists next door who want to sacrifice her baby? These films will continue to inspire me as we move from script to casting, financing and on through production.
Another project I'm very excited about is a TV pitch the author Kristiana Kahakauwila and I took out over the summer. Developed with Big Beach (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, LOVING, etc), it seems we've found a great production/broadcast partner for the show. Once lawyers finish their slow motion one-two-one, Tiana and I will jump into writing the pilot episode. More on all this soon.