Given that Spielberg has his hands full with his plans for “Big Friendly Giant”, a story that will hit the silver screen sometime this year, and Peter Jackson is loaded with projects after “Lord of the Rings “ and his Hobbits series, I wonder who could direct a fantasy story based in Ancient Persia, with a Xerxes fallen head over heels who’s fate is to be decided in Bucharest.
Laura Nureldin - presenter for Antenna3 TV station - sketched his destiny, because she goes to sleep late and has enough time to watch a couple of good movies. After seeing them, she imagines others. She basically moves characters across stories, as it happened with a girl from Los Angeles that she whisked to Xerxes’ Persia. Laura figured that a lot of might come of it: some bad, but some good.
Artsunited.ro - You wrote a fantasy script and want nothing but a Hollywood director. Being a fantasy story, I bet you told the Americans that you would settle for no less than Del Toro or Peter Jackson! You promised we’d die laughing when you give us the details...
Laura Nureldin - I’ve already emailed Peter Jackson. I even got an answer: his people told me they were loaded with projects for the next 6-7 years. Oh, and they only work with their own writers. I guess I’ll just have to do this with Spielberg. How did I get the epiphany in the first place? I go to sleep late. Or early, depending on which side of 3 am you are.
I was zapping and I came across a movie with some cool sets. And some cool actors. And I watched it. While watching, I started wondering what the story would have looked like from a different angle. With a different thread. With different crossroads. I started writing. A friend of mine read it and swore eternal hatred if I didn’t write a novel. She also told me I’d be a complete moron if I didn’t turn the story into a movie. (I had explained to her that the scenes in the book were conceived in a cinematic manner. I would be writing about 4-5 pages at a time, because that was how long a shooting day would last in my head).
Another friend read the synopsis and told me to turn it into a script, because it would be easier for me to get funds. That figures. Problem: who in hell had ever written a script before? Not me. While writing the story, I had been collaborating brilliantly with a nice glass of wine. When I moved on to the script, I reluctantly had to replace Mr. Pinot Noir with a small bucket of coffee (also Noir) and I started learning what a script was and what it wanted from me. Trigonometry, I tell ya! Well, I learned, I got myself professional script writing software and I brought it to this world. I had written the story thinking about the lead character in that movie I had watched. And no, I would never have any other actor play my Xerxes.
So I created an IMDb Pro account and started digging around for the man. Found him. Sent script. Got answer from team: “Looks good, why don’t you send it to his manager? Here’s his email address”. When I read the mail, I had just woken up (not entirely) and all I could fathom was that the manager’s email was not a company one. Typical Romanian conclusion: “what kind of a manager is he?! How can he go around with such a lame address?” The two friends I have already mentioned virtually wiped the floor with me, as follows: “You idiot! Do you know how many people practically sleep on his doorstep before getting access to his private mail address? Email the man NOW!”
Check. The man answered within the hour. He said he’d be happy to attach the star, as long as I handled the funding, because they were up to their necks in projects. I’ve been trying to do that ever since. Over there, not over here. Because my story is a money eater, but also a money maker. Of course, if properly done and “sold”.
Read the whole interview on Artsunited.ro.